By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAYGrocery shoppers will soon see the amount of calories, salt, sugar and saturated fat per serving plastered on the front of many popular food and beverage packages.On Monday, the food industry unveiled its voluntary front-of-pack labeling, called Nutrition Keys, designed to help make healthful choices.
The Nutrition Keys also can include up to two other nutrients, such as potassium, fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, iron or protein.
The program is designed to "promote healthier lifestyles," says Pamela Bailey, president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which announced the program with the Food Marketing Institute.
Consumers will start seeing the labels on some food packages in the next few months, but they won't be widely found until the end of the year. The program applies to packaged foods, but not fresh foods such as individual bananas or apples.
The plan is already drawing fire from some critics who say the industry is trying a pre-emptive strike so it doesn't have to use a plan being developed by the Food and Drug Administration.
"Just putting those numbers on the front of packages could be confusing rather than helpful," says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. "People may not know how to use these numbers in the context of a day's diet."
The program has not been tested or approved by an impartial group and doesn't contain a simple color-coding system that would help consumers make sense of the numbers, he says.
Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University and author of Food Politics, says, "It's hard not to be outraged at industry pre-emption of what FDA is trying so hard to do."
But Bailey says that last March, first lady Michelle Obama challenged the industry to develop a front-of-pack labeling system to help busy consumers make informed decisions.
New nutrition labels coming to the front of food packages
via usatoday.com
