Public Health Advocates Call for End to FOP Labeling

Two public health advocates have penned an article in the February 23, 2010, edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that calls for an end to all front-of-package (FOP) food labels. According to New York University Professor Marion Nestle and Children’s Hospital Boston Obesity Program Director David Ludwig, the food industry has historically used loopholes in labeling laws to make tenuous health claims and develop “self endorsement labeling systems” in an effort to sell more products. The authors note that although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “intends to examine the entire issue of front-of-package labeling,” the agency continues to maintain that “point of purchase labeling . . . can be an effective way of promoting informed food choices and helping consumers construct healthier diets.”

Nestle and Ludwig, however, remain skeptical that these systems will not be co-opted by food and beverage manufacturers seeking to promote sales. They opine that “consumers believe front-of-package claims, perceive them to be government-endorsed, and use them to ignore the Nutrition Facts Panel.” In particular, Nestle and Ludwig argue that FOP labeling practices are problematic because: (i) “Few, if any, claims can be verified”; (ii) “Claims based on individual nutritional factors are misleading”; (iii) “Even [FOP] labels restricted to nutrient content can be deceptive by presenting information out of context”; (iv) “’Healthier’ processed foods are not necessarily healthy”; and (v) “[FOP] claims produce conflicts of interest” between FDA’s educational goals and reasonable business objectives.

The authors thus urge FDA to consider “an outright ban on all front-of-packaging claims” while revising the Nutrition Facts Panel “to facilitate informed dietary choice and minimize the possibility of market manipulation.”