A new law will force supermarkets to change the way food is promoted and labelled. Newly decided FDA standards aim for stricter criteria when labelling foods so as to provide consumers with a higher level of transparency regarding the contents of packaged foods.<\/p>\n
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is redefining what is considered “healthy” and consumers stand only to benefit from this. This new regulation<\/a> aims to add more clarity and precision to the nutritional value labels on food products. This new measure is the first review of its kind in over thirty years. As a direct result of the new regulation, big box companies like Target, Walmart, and Costco<\/a> will now have to make changes to the way in which they label food products.<\/p>\n One example of this change is that food products that contain high amounts of sugar or sodium will no longer be allowed to be marketed as “healthy”. Manufacturers will have to adjust the labelling, however, they have until 2028 to do so. This means that recalls of current products does not need to be done and no food will be wasted as a result.<\/p>\n Enabling a stricter criteria for for healthy food products allows for more honest marketing, thereby allowing customers to make fully informed decisions regarding their dietary needs and the nutritional value of what they are consuming. Beginning on February 25, 2025, for a product to be labelled as ‘healthy’, it will need to contain a certain amount of one or more of the main food groups. These include vegetables, fruits, dairy products, whole grains or protein. Over and above that, there are set limits to the amounts of added sugars, sodium, and saturated fats that are allowed in these products.<\/p>\n This could cause a decline in sales for popular products that have previously been dubbed ‘healthy’ if they do not meet the standards required of the new regulation.<\/p>\n In a statement given to The Hill, Robert Califf, FDA commissioner, made an astute claim by stating, “It is essential for the future of our country that food be a vehicle for well-being”. He reiterated this by pointing out that healthier eating habits can only be achieved through access to nutritional information.<\/p>\n Though seemingly restrictive, the new criteria for marking food as healthy actually expands the product range a fair amount. Previously categorized as high-cholesterol or ‘fatty’ foods such as salmon, nuts and seeds, and eggs, will now be evaluated based on its nutritional value. Conversely, foods that require more processing like white bread, sweetened cereals, or yoghurt with added sugar, will no longer make the cut for the redefined standard of healthy.<\/p>\n It is worth noting that no manufacturer is obligated to market certain foods as “healthy”, however, if they do make that choice, it is imperative that they comply with the freshly updated standards. The three year period that companies have to comply is to implement changes to the packaging of all products. This time should also be used to review formulas and have them appropriately adjusted. Failure to adhere to the guidelines could result in sanctions or product withdrawals.<\/p>\n The FDA is currently toying with the idea of a new logo to identify whether or not a food product meets the newly setup “healthy” criteria. The creation of an easy-to-spot logo could optimize the shopping experience for customers who shop at larger retailers like Walmart or Target.\u00a0Data analysis by Numerator revealed a rise in consumers opting for generic brands due to lower costs hence a “healthy” label may be the only way for other brands to maintain their sales going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new law will force supermarkets to change the way food is promoted and labelled. Newly decided FDA standards aim for stricter criteria when labelling foods so as to provide consumers with a higher level of transparency regarding the contents of packaged foods. What is the FDA’s latest regulation? The United States Food and Drug […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","share_position":"hide","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"custom","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d g:i a","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1","sticky_sidebar":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"no-crop","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-715"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13,12,11],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-costco","tag-target","tag-walmart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gcn.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why introduce new regulations now?<\/h2>\n
What’s healthy now, what’s not?<\/h2>\n