FDA Announces Major Revisions to the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels

Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the availability of three proposed rules that would revise the Nutrition Facts label requirements.  These proposals will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, March 3. 

• Food Labeling: Revision to the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels
• Serving Sizes of Foods That Can Reasonably Be Consumed At One-Eating Occasion, et. al.
• Serving Sizes; Reference Amount and Serving Size Declaration for Hard Candies, Breath Mints

FDA has also posted materials at:

•  Constituent Update: FDA Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label
•  Proposed Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label

The proposed changes to the nutrition label include: 

• Adding declaration of “Added Sugars” indented after “Sugars.”.
• Removing “Calories from Fat.”
• Changing “Amount Per Serving” to “Amount per__”, with the blank filled in with the serving size.
• Replacing “Total Carbohydrates” with “Total Carbs.”
• Adding declaration of Potassium and Vitamin D.
• Making the declaration of Vitamins A and Vitamin C voluntary (Calcium and Iron are still mandatory).
• Declaring amount and Percent Daily Value of Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron and Potassium.
• Revising the Daily Values (DV) for a variety of nutrients such as Sodium, Calcium, Dietary Fiber, and Vitamin D. 
• Updating reference amounts customarily consumed (RACCs), which are used to determine serving sizes. 
• Labeling packaged foods that are typically eaten in one sitting as one serving and declaring calorie and nutrient information for the whole package.
• For packages that could be consumed in one sitting or multiple sittings, using “dual column” labels to indicate calories and nutrient information on both “per serving” and “per package.”
• Making Calories and Serving Sizes more prominent.
• Shifting Percent Daily Value to the left.
• Changing the footnote to better explain the meaning of Percent Daily Value.

Below is a copy of the current Nutrition Facts box and the proposed Nutrition Facts box--

The proposed changes would affect all packaged foods except certain meat, poultry, and processed egg products, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).  The FDA also is proposing some corresponding updates to the Supplement Facts label on dietary supplements, including proposed changes to the Daily Values and the units of measure.

Keller and Heckman LLP will carefully review these materials and prepare a detailed memorandum for distribution. We have decades of experience in the food labeling arena and were very involved with developing the original Nutrition Labeling rules in the early 1990s and helping clients implement the final rules in 1993. As such, we would be happy to discuss the ramification of these proposed rules with you and assist in drafting comments. Comments are due on June 2, 2014 (90 days from publication) unless an extension is granted, which is likely.