The new FDA proposal would require food products to have nutrition labels on the front of the packaging

Jan. 14 (UPI) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hopes front-of-package labeling will better improve the health of the American population, the FDA said.

“Food should be a tool for well-being, not a contributor to chronic disease,” Jim Jones, FDA deputy commissioner for human foods, said in a news release Tuesday.

Nearly 60% of Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease, driving up the country’s annual healthcare costs by $4.5 trillion.

The FDA’s proposed rule, if finalized, would require U.S. food manufacturers to display a front-of-package nutrition label on most packaged foods manufactured in the United States.

Chronic diseases – including cancer, diabetes and heart disease – are a leading cause of disability and death, US health officials stressed.

The three-year effective date would be for U.S. companies with annual food sales of more than $10 million, or four years after effective date for companies with annual sales of less than $10 million.

The proposal is part of the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health to reduce diet-related diseases by 2030.

According to FDA officials, this new proposal will play a “key role” in the federal agency’s nutrition agenda and will be part of a government-wide effort to combat the nation’s chronic disease crisis.

On Tuesday it was posted on social media by Dr. Lisa R. Young, an award-winning nutritionist, author and associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU Steinhardt, called it “good news.”

It would become a federal policy following public comment three years after a final version of the new policy rule goes into effect.

If approved, it would give shoppers visible information about a food’s levels of saturated fat, sodium and added sugar, which U.S. health officials have called three nutrients directly linked to chronic disease when consumed in excess.

Meanwhile, the Washington-based American Spice Trade Association and industry representatives lobbied the FDA in 2023 to allow spices to carry the “healthy” label as part of its dietary guidelines.

And the FDA has taken a number of other similar steps in recent years to review labeling and nutrition standards in an effort to reverse negative health trends.

A 2023 FDA study of nearly 10,000 U.S. adults examined human responses to three types of FOP labels to determine which system better provided study participants with faster, more accurate assessments.

But in addition to the goal of informing the public in a timely manner, “it is possible that manufacturers may reformulate their products to be healthier in response to front-of-pack nutrition labeling,” the deputy commissioner added.

“Together, we hope that FDA’s efforts, along with those of our federal partners, will result in stemming the tide of the chronic disease crisis in our country,” Jones said.

Public comments on the proposed rule are due by May 16 and can be submitted electronically. According to FDA, all written comments should be identified with the docket number: FDA-2024-N-2910 and title: “Food labeling: Nutritional information on the front of the packaging.”