FDA to Explore Nutrition Labels on Front of Packages

September 28, 2022:

The Biden administration is pushing to change nutrition labels on food packaging to help people eat better and to encourage manufacturers to make healthier products.

One change would be putting food labels on the front of packaging, or FOP.

The Food and Drug Administration will research FOP labeling, the White House announced Tuesday as part of its efforts to battle hunger and support nutrition.

FOP labels should help shoppers, “particularly those with lower nutrition literacy,” quickly see which foods are “part of a healthy eating pattern,” the White House said.

The FOP labeling could come in a variety of forms, including star ratings. It won’t replace longer nutrition labels on the back of products.

The administration also wants to make it harder for producers to claim foods are “healthy” without providing information to support the claim.

Manufacturers would be able to label products “healthy” if they have a significant amount of food from one of the food groups, the proposed guidelines say. And they have to follow certain limits on things like fat, sodium and added sugars, The Washington Post reported.

The FDA told USA Today that it “plans to help empower consumers by providing more informative labeling." The agency added that it plans to expand research into FOP labeling, including monitoring FOP labeling and its impact in other parts of the world.

FOP food labeling isn’t new, nutrition producer Marion Nestle of New York University told the newspaper. But a standardized system that clearly warns consumers "what's wrong with the product as well as what's right about it" would be. WebMD