Fixing America's crummy food system will take more than nutrition labels | JP Sottile

Excuse me if I'm not excited about labels with larger fonts. Let's tell consumers about the real added ingredients in their foodIf we are what we eat and knowledge is power, then the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) newly-proposed nutrition labeling requirements can only be a good thing. Right?Wrong.The problem with the much-ballyhooed and thoroughly underwhelming changes to food labeling is that these modifications are not only minor and still subject to a long rulemaking process, but, on the issue of portion size, these proposals only affect 27 of the 157 product categories subject to portion rules. More directly, they do nothing to inform consumers about far more pressing issues troubling the industrial food system.Excuse me if I'm not excited about labels with larger fonts and minor changes. The big White House press event merely uses the appearance of incremental "progress" to forestall real, substantive changes to the one thing that unites us all: concern about the health and safety of the food we eat.These new rules are really just proposals. Even if they emerge unaltered after the "public comment" period and industry-influenced "rulemaking" phase, these labeling requirements are still a full two years away from implementation. Once that process is complete, the FDA and Big Food – represented in Washington by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) – will tout the new labels as an important cooperative accomplishment, when it's really just a shift in m...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Food & drink Nutrition Health United States theguardian.com Comment Comment is free Source Type: news