FDA Proposes Disclosing Added Sugars on Nutrition Facts Label
The average American male over age 20 consumes about 235 calories from added sugars and women of the same age group consume about 239 calories of added sugars each day. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 150 calories’ worth of added sugars per day for men and 100 calories per day for women. This is the equivalent of nine teaspoons for men and six teaspoons of added sugar for women.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Supplemental Proposed Rule that would amend the current Nutrition Facts Label to include the percent daily value (%DV) of added sugars in that food. It would also revise the footnote on the current Nutrition Facts Label to more clearly communicate what the percent daily value means.
The percent daily value indicates the amount a particular nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a person’s daily diet. The proposed label revision would be based on the recommendation that added sugars not exceed ten percent of total daily calories.
The current Nutrition Facts Label includes the total amount of grams of sugar that a food contains, which is a combination of naturally occurring sugars and the sugars that get added in the production of the product. The changes to the nutrition label will require manufacturers to include what percentage the sugar adds to the consumer’s daily intake. The FDA says that this would provide some much-needed context to help consumers better understand how the sugar they eat contributes to the total number of calories they consume each day, according to a story in the Washington Post.
An FDA representative is quoted as saying “lower amounts of sugar-sweetened foods and beverages are strongly associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. When sugars are added to foods and beverages to sweeten them, they add calories without providing additional nutrients.” Both the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association have warned about the health risks of excess sugar intake as it can lead to diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.
The FDA says that they are taking these actions based, in part, on the science underlying a new report released by the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which says that excess consumption of sugars pose potential health risks which are of particular concern to the committee.
The proposed revisions to the Nutrition Facts Label will be open for comment for 75 days. Already there has been some push-back on the proposed industry groups such as The Sugar Association, which says that the FDA’s proposal is based on, “limited and weak scientific evidence.” And the American Beverage Association, along with other food industry lobbyists, including the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association, which suggest that changing the Nutrition Facts Label would only confuse consumers rather than help them.
The new labels, if approved, will help give consumers a better idea of how much added sugars they are consuming as a part of the foods they eat each day.
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