The People Have Spoken: Require Tougher Standards For Food Labels

Nevin Barich

LOS ANGELES , October 10, 2017 (Off The Menu) – The Trump administration is delaying tougher new requirements for food labels, and according to a recent poll, most Americans don’t like it.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, a majority of Americans want the U.S. government to require nutrition labels on food packaging, including people who do not read them.

The poll comes as the government delayed the introduction of mandatory labeling of sugars added to packaged food and use of genetically-engineered ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration proposed giving manufacturers an extra 1-1/2 years to comply with new nutrition facts label requirements, drawing criticism from nutritionists.

According to the poll, 84% of adults agreed that "the government should require nutrition information labels on all packaged food sold in grocery stores" and 64% wanted similar requirements for restaurants. Most people wanted those labels even though relatively few said they read them. Only 13% said they "always" read the nutrition facts when deciding to buy a product.

Delaying these measures goes against consumer sentiment and the overall public health, according to officials from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

“Under Trump, the FDA and USDA have systematically undermined popular measures that provide useful calorie and nutrition information to consumers and healthy food to children,” said Laura MacCleery, legislative affairs director for CSPI. “The cost of these programs is vastly outweighed by the billions in health benefits they will provide to the economy by avoiding disease and increasing productivity.”

Added Peter G. Lurie, CSPI president: “The FDA’s delay…is all the more shocking coming on the heels of the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported that all 50 states had prevalences of self-reported obesity higher than 20% in 2016, reflecting an upward trend since 2010.  Twenty-five states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands had rates of 30% or higher. The estimated annual medical costs of obesity are $147 billion in 2008 dollars, according to one study cited by CDC. Two out of three adults and one out of three children are overweight or have obesity, conditions that raise the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers.”

The people have spoken. The critics have spoken. But the government appears to have their ear plugs in.

Nevin Barich is the Food and Beverage Analyst for Industry Intelligence and is also Menuism’s fast food expert. Email him at Nevin.Barich@IndustryIntel.com or follow him on Twitter.

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