The Food and Drug Administration of the United States is anticipated to update the nutrition labels of the food packages next year. The federal agency is planning to edit the foods' serving sizes in order for the consumers to understand the amount of food they are actually taking in. The revision will be conducted in the desire to make the labels more real and substantial.
The food packages that will be affected are those food that are commonly seen with low serving sizes which include ice creams, potato chips, soda and other favorite goodies.
Dr. Tara Narula, a CBS News Medical contributor and cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, explained why FDA is actually organizing the label revision.
"Nutrition labels were born in 1993, but the issue is that our eating habits and the nutrition science has really evolved since the 1970's and the 1980's, which is what we based our current nutrition labels on,"
The updated labels are said to be in alignment with Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which was passed in 1990. The decree implements that serving sizes should reflect the exact and actual amount that must be consumed.
FDA's nutrition label revision will be considered as the first in the past 20 years. With the latest instruction, a 20-ounce of bottle soda for example, which is currently summed as 2.5 servings, will be labeled as one serving. Likewise, if a pint of ice cream which is currently labeled of having four half cup servings per container, will eventually have two one-cup per servings in the revision.
FDA estimates that almost 17 percent of the current food labels are about to be updated. According to Narula, the agency is also planning to redesign the current food labels. This means that the display of the serving size and calorie amount will be printed in bigger and bolder type, for the emphasis of the numbers.
On the contrary, there are some groups that misinterpret the revision. The Harvard's Behavioral Science and Regulation Group for instance, warned that consumers may understand the new label as an "endorsement" for consuming larger serving sizes.
