3 Things You Should Know About the New Nutrition Label

We know that deciphering and staying up-to-date with industry regulations isn’t the most exciting thing to do. Nevertheless, as a business operating in a regulated industry, it’s required to know what’s going on.

One of the biggest and most recent changes announced by the Food and Drug Administration has been about the nutrition facts label update. Continue reading to learn about what’s changing and how it applies to you.

Why it’s Changing

It’s been over 20 years since the last time an update was issued on the nutrition label. The updates that are going into effect will reflect recent scientific information and learnings in nutrition and public health. Additionally, the goal is to make the label easier to read and understand so consumers can make better-informed decisions about the food they eat.

When it’s Changing

The FDA made this announcement on May 20, 2016, giving businesses ample time to make these changes. You have until January 1, 2020, to comply, or January 1, 2021, if you make less than $10 million in annual food sales.

Read through the following highlights to learn more about what’s changing with the new nutrition label.

1. Added Sugars Called Out

As consumer health trends continue toward label transparency, the demand for more insight on added sugars has been prioritized in this update. Instead of lumping grams of sugar together, the new label will distinguish between naturally-occurring sugar (think sugars found in fruit and vegetables) and sugars that have been added by the manufacturer.

What this means for you: If you are a food or beverage manufacturer and you tout how healthy your product is but your product has added sugars, consumers will now know how much there are in each serving. You should consider how this may affect your brand’s image to your consumer.

2. Serving Information Goes Big

To help guide consumers to make more informed decisions on what they eat, the FDA has bolded and increased the size of the font of the most important aspects of the nutrition label:

3. Serving Size is Portioned

Serving sizes will change for some products while remaining the same for other products. By law, serving sizes must be based on how much food and drink people consume. This is different than the current nutrition facts because the serving size is based on how much someone should consume. For example, a beverage that had 2 servings on the label will now change to 1 serving because someone generally drinks the entire bottle.

These three updates are a few of the many changes to the nutrition label going into effect by 2020 (or 2021 if you’re a small business). We recommend learning more about these changes so you can plan for these updates with enough time in advance.

Click here to read a guide from the FDA about how to properly label your food product.

You can find all of RangeMe's Labeling Providers here!

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About the Author

Louise is a community builder and education enthusiast who enjoys helping emerging brands get discovered on RangeMe. During her free time you can find Louise cooking (and eating) her way through cookbooks.