Food Companies Adopt New Labeling Standards to Aid Consumers

Several of the nation’s largest food and beverage companies have reportedly agreed to market their products under a common nutritional standard and logo designed to lessen consumer confusion at the supermarket. The “Smart Choices Program” allows participating manufacturers to display a “check mark” logo alongside calorie and serving size information on the front of products that meet specific nutritional thresholds set by a coalition of scientists, retailers and industry experts and based on federal dietary recommendations. These products cannot exceed the program’s limits for total fats, saturated fats, added sugars, or sodium. In addition, they must contain several “nutrients to encourage” that include calcium, potassium, fiber, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Fruits and vegetables, whole grain, and low- or no-fat dairy products are also eligible for the marketing claim. “It’s simple, it’s easy-to-use, it’s consensus based, it’s
science based,” said one spokesperson for Unilever PLC. “We would hope it would become the front-of-package labeling standard in the United States.” See The Associated Press, October 27, 2008; The New York Times, October 28, 2008.

Meanwhile, an October 29, 2008, article in The New York Times discussed the impact of New York City’s menu labeling regulations on restaurant offerings and consumer habits. Now required to list calorie content on their menus, some major chains have apparently modified their products in response to customer demand for healthier options. Moreover, patrons interviewed in the article specifically cited the availability of nutritional information as a factor in their decisions. “Counting calories is so 1980s,” one diner was quoted as saying. “But when it’s right there, it’s kind of hard to ignore.”