Updated Nutrition Labels
 

Companies will soon be required to use a new version of nutrition labels that are easier to read and understand. Standard serving sizes will be mandated to be closer to reality (such as a whole muffin or bottle of pop instead of a half). Total calories text will be larger. There are quite a few other changes that I didn't list that are featured in the below article. I think this is a really great idea!

New Nutritional Labels

I'm excited to hear about this! The portion size update is greatly needed, as well as highlighting calories. Of course there is so much more to good nutrition, obviously, but portion size and calories is a good place to start imo.

Just today I was shopping for graham crackers for my children. Honey Maid has regular Honey graham crackers, and Low Fat Honey graham crackers. The Low Fat had more calories >< per serving. I know to read labels, and I know that low-fat does not necessarily equal better for you or equal lower calories, but some new dieters might not. I hope they make the calorie numbers bigger on the label. I'm at the age where I need reading glasses to decipher tiny print on labels, and sometimes I don't bring my reading glasses with me.

I appreciate how cereal boxes have that info bar across the top front of the boxes that bulletpoint basic nutritional content. It's really handy!

One thing that didn't seem to be addressed, at least not directly, is the per container nutrition information. That's what I want to see.

The article said 6 oz of yogurt is now to be considered a serving. That's great, but what about 4 and 8 oz containers.

I want to stop seeing partial servings listed on labels, especially since they're so inaccurate. I want to know the nutrition counts for the whole can, for example. It would be even nicer if containers had to be divisible into a whole number of servings - no more fractions of a serving.

Kaplods, yes, yes, yes, partial servings are so majorly annoying! Another one of my favs: "servings per container: *about* 2" lolol how close is *about*? Within 5%? Within 10%? I'm so bad at math. If I have to get involved with grams and oz and dividing, I'm lost.

Absolutely!

Count me in as thrilled if I don't need to throw away an entire serving of food because they made something obviously single use but put two servings in it (I'm looking at you, cup of soup!)

I like the new labels. Totally agree with the serving issue. and omg those 'cup of soups' are like 2 1/2 servings but claim to be so healthy for you--yeah, if you eat less than half and do what with the rest?

Not the healthiest example, but still an example of what will be fixed with this... Poptarts.

Serving size is 1 poptart at around 200 calories each. If a serving is 1 poptart, why are there 2 in a pouch!? You're obviously going to eat both of them if you're even eating poptarts in the first place.

I'm so glad that they're trying to fix this issue. If you're not paying attention, you can easily eat multiple servings from what you would assume is a single serving package.

I never really eat cup of soup, but I got a groupon for a gluten free box that included two instant soups and I'll definitely keep them for emergencies. In the past, I've thrown out half of a meal at work because I couldn't keep it safely in a paper cup and had no tupperware. It's so ridiculous and wasteful!

Honestly, I kind of don't care if the math is easy. If a container has, say 1.3333 servings, then this may be helpful.

I thought some serving sizes are wonky becuaase they reflect recommended nutritional guidelines on serving sizes as opposed to what the carton contains. Like, a box of Zataran's makes 2.5 servings because a "full" dinner portion of rice is 1 cup and the box makes 2.5 cups. Would the new labels then say that a serving is 1.25 cups, or change some other way?

What I am interested in is the proposal to require added sugar to be separately listed. I understand the food industry opposes this so it may not make the final list but I really think that is something that is needed.