A Sign of Better Nutrition
Americans take it for granted that the processed foods they eat are safe and pure and that the package of frozen peas or the bag of potato chips they buy contains nothing more and nothing less than the ingredients listed on the label. For that, they can thank laws and regulations first enacted earlier in this century in response to scandalous and deadly abuses in the processed food industry. But if an honest accounting of ingredients is useful and necessary, accurate information on the nutritive contents of processed foods surely is no less so. Broadly supported legislation now before Congress would require such labeling. It deserves to become law.
About 55% of the processed food sold in the United States already includes some nutritional labeling, if only on a selective basis. The Nutrition Labeling and Information Act would make nutritional labeling mandatory. It would require disclosure of such essential information as the amount of fiber and cholesterol in a food and the types of fat it contains, and it would provide clear and definite standards for the use of such imprecise claims as “lite” and “cholesterol-free.” It’s conceivable that the nutrition labeling measure could in time have no less an impact on public health than the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration more than 60 years ago.
The effort to provide consumers with more and better nutrition information comes at a time of growing popular and scientific interest in the connections between diet and health, and at a time of rapidly expanding knowledge about both the health-threatening effects of certain foods and the health-promoting qualities of others. Comprehensive nutrition labeling would serve not only the public’s right to know but its need to know, so as better to protect and improve health. That’s why the proposed legislation is endorsed, among others, by the American Cancer Society, the American Dietetic Assn., the American College of Physicians and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The American Heart Assn., another supporter of the measure, meanwhile is moving ahead on its own to encourage dietary habits aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Beginning next February, the AHA will start awarding its own seal of approval for use on labels and in advertising to foods that are low in fat, cholesterol and sodium. The first food categories it will test for health acceptability are margarines and other spreads; shortenings and oils; frozen dinners and entrees; canned and frozen vegetables, and crackers. This welcome action should increase significantly the information available to health-conscious consumers.
