Taking the Guesswork Out of Good Nutrition

The documents that spell out the federal requirements for nutrition information on food labels are daunting in their length and complexity: They consume hundreds of pages in the Federal Register.

The regulations themselves take up only a small part of that opus. The rest is background information. It explains, first of all, why the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture took on the task of making the most sweeping changes to this country's food labeling in a generation.

It also explains how the agencies reached their decisions on the thousands of issues--major and minor--involved in the new food label. The documents offer a classic case study in the making of health regulations. Because of the changes brought about by these regulations, food labels now provide more help than ever before for consumers trying to eat healthy. There is a wealth of information, not just on the side or back of the package, but on the front panel, too, about how virtually every food product contributes--for better or worse--to our daily diet.

This special issue of FDA Consumer magazine was designed for those who want to know all they can about the new food labeling requirements, without wading through those hundreds of pages of the Federal Register on their own. It was one feature of the major public education campaigns conducted by FDA, USDA, and many other public and private sector organizations the goal of which was to carry the message of the new food label to a target audience of a quarter of a billion people--simply defined as "everyone who eats."

We hope that this publication will not only be helpful to consumers, but will also serve as a useful tool for those who are joining in the effort to educate the public: teachers, journalists, doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, other health professionals, and health educators. We have covered all the major facets of the new regulations--the new nutrition panel, health claims, nutrient content descriptors, among others--in enough detail to make them understandable yet not overwhelming. Because of the new regulations, food labels today provide:

Nutrition information that is virtually universal in the marketplace; almost every food carries it.
Information that is up-to-date with the dietary needs of Americans in the 1990s.
Labels that show how each food fits into an overall healthy diet, nutrient by nutrient.
Credible marketing claims such as "light," "fat-free," 'low-calorie," and "high-fiber."

The new food label has taken the guesswork out of good nutrition, as long as shoppers choose to use the information that is now--literally--at their fingertips.