The New Food Label

You will notice that the serving size, as well as servings per container have increased in font size. There was some discrepancy between the appropriate serving size amount listed on product packaging and the actual size normally consumed in society today. The font for calories has been significantly enlarged. Calories from fat has been completely removed from the FDA nutrition facts.

Added sugars is a new category on the updated FDA food label. An added sugar is a sugar type that doesn’t occur naturally within the product and has been added to sweeten the packaged food item. Added sugars can include, but aren’t limited to, syrups, types of actual sugars as well as honey and even fruit juices.

The daily value % of any vitamin or mineral listed is not to exceed 100%. Vitamins A & C have been completely removed from the updated food label format.

These changes also include the updated daily recommended values for sodium from 2400mg to 2300mg.

Dietary fiber also received a change in recommended daily value. Previous recommendations were approximately 25 g of daily fiber per day. This amount has been increased to 28g. Dietary fiber contributes to overall digestive health and foods containing significant amounts of dietary fiber tend to be heart healthy.