The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revised guidelines to include a daily value for added sugars on nutrition labels for prepared foods.
This percent daily value serves to inform consumers of how much of a given substance they should consume each day. In the case of sugar, this recommendation serves as a maximum quantity.
The FDA proposal is based on a recommendation that no more than 10 percent of total calories come from added sugars. A supplement to FDA regulations released in March 2014 proposed that manufacturers include added sugars on nutrition labels, although those changes did not call for reporting a daily percentage.
"The FDA has a responsibility to give consumers the information they need to make informed dietary decisions for themselves and their families. For the past decade, consumers have been advised to reduce their intake of added sugars, and the proposed percent daily value for added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label is intended to help consumers follow that advice," said Susan Mayne, director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the FDA.
This new proposal would result in the reporting of added sugars in much the same way as some fats, cholesterol, dietary fiber and sodium, among other constituents of food products. Adding sugar to a processed food adds calories without providing additional nutrients.
The Food and Drug Administration reports that the recommendation was based, in part, on recent research showing a diet low in added sugar can result in healthier cardiac health.
Regulators at the FDA are also seeking to modify the explanation on the label, detailing how the concept of daily percentage value should be interpreted. The newly-proposed explanation would be shorter than the current version.
"The percent daily value (%DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice," the proposed FDA text reads.
At 2,000 calories a day, the printed recommendation would suggest the average American should consume a maximum of 200 calories a day in added sugars. This equates to around 1.78 ounces each day.
In 2014, the Obama Administration proposed a series of changes to nutrition labels, designed to make eating choices easier for consumers. This latest change is part of those updates, which will also include regulating serving size to more realistic quantities.
The federal agency is accepting public input on the proposed rule changes for a period of 75 days.
Photo: Logan Brumm | Flickr
