The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced major changes to nutrition fact labels displayed on food and beverages sold in the US.

The changes were implemented to help consumers make health conscious decisions and to reflect new scientific discoveries related to diet.

According to Registrar Corp, a US FDA consulting firm, changes include:

Calories

• The font size of the word “calories” and the actual number of calories within the product has been enlarged and bolded.
• The number of calories from fat is no longer to be included as “research shows the type of fat is more important than the amount”.

Serving sizes

• “Servings per container” and the serving size declaration has increased in font size. The serving size declaration has been bolded.
• Serving sizes are now based off what the average American consumes. For example, soft drink serving sizes our now based off 20 ounces where they were formally based off 10 ounces.

Added sugars

• Added sugars must now be declared separately from total sugars.

Nutrient daily values

• The required list of nutrients now include vitamin D and potassium. Vitamin A and C is now optional.
• There is now an updated ‘percentage daily value’ footnote which reads “The percentage Daily Value tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.”

The majority of food manufacturers selling in the US will have until July 2018 to make the changes. Those which have less than US $10 million in annual food sales will have an additional year.

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