New nutrition info for food products unveiled… nuts!

This week, the Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers Association revealed a “new and improved” label icon system for food packages. The program, called Nutrition Keys, is “Take 2” for food manufacturers in coming up with a universal system all companies could use to post on food products.  Smart Choices, which got skewered by nutritionists a couple of years ago, was their first attempt.   As someone who always hopes "we" will do our best to help consumers eat well, I was hoping for more from this system.



 
In theory…
The Nutrition Keys icons are suppose to help shoppers see, at a glance, what’s in a product (nutrition-wise)—specifically the calories per serving; saturated fat; sodium and sugar.** It’s up to you to decide if the numbers you’re seeing listed are a good thing or not.  
 
The food industry/manufacturers helped shape this new system so their vested interest is in supporting the sale of their foods – not portraying them in a negative light.  So… shoppers see a lot of numbers but don’t necessarily have much context for their meaning. Is 500 milligrams of potassium good? What about 450 calories – is that a lot or a little for a particular food?  What's % DV?  (Not a familiar term or concept to many shoppers.)
 
Other points  of interest:
  • The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has wanted to coral all the claims made on food products and create a unified system all food products would use.   Some watchdog groups believe Nutrition Keys is an attempt by the food industry to, at best, stop FDA’s attempt to come up with a system – at the very least, delay any action FDA might take.
  • The “sugars” number presented on the panel is for TOTAL sugar in a product not added sugars. Added sugar would be a much more meaningful and helpful number for shoppers—it’s an Achilles heel to healthful eating. Total sugar includes natural sugars found in fruits and milk. Including them in the mix gives consumers no help on how much sugar (of the sugar we should actually be concerned about) is in a food. 
  • All of the amounts are written as “grams” and “milligrams.”  That means little to most people.  Shoppers need a visual, e.g. teaspoons.  14 grams of sugar = 3 1/2 teaspoons.  That visual becomes more understandable. 
  • The Nutrition Keys system does not take into consideration the wholesomeness of a food.  It's simply a numbers game.  Assuming you know what to make of the numbers on display, you are still missing information on it's "real" factor.  Points or kudos should be given to foods made wholesomely.  Is a highly processed, highly manufactured food with a comparable amount of calories, fat, sodium and sugar on par with a food with real, whole food ingredients?  
Information is a good thing.  Maybe this system will evolve over time to be one that offers consumers full disclosure on the healthfulness and wholesomeness of a food.   One can always hope.   
 
  
** Products can voluntarily post nutrients to “encourage” in the Nutrition Keys bar –namely fiber, potassium, vitamins A, C, D, calcium, iron and protein.