Institute of Medicine implements a nutrition label on packages
Posted on sep 2011
According to an initiative of the Institute of Medicine for helping people realize which food is healthy and which not, it has built a plan for implementing a label on front of every packaged food where it can be easily seen the number of calories per serving and also a rate in order to show how healthy the food is.
The stars will be given based on the three types of nutrients that people tend to eat more: sodium, added sugar and saturated fats. These nutrients are also some of the most closely related to symptoms which usually lead to diseases as obesity, cardiovascular diseases or diabetes.
The Institute is trying in this way to help people identify more easily the "three stars" food which will mean a healthier one than one rated with no stars.
The maximum of stars a food can get is three depending on the amount of nutrients it contains, but the minimum could be no star (for sweets for example), if there exist an excessive amount harmful nutrients. In this way it would be easier to build and maintain a healthy diet.
The plan was currently submitted to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and to the Administration of Food and Drug. The Institute will leave for the agencies to come up with an innovative way of presenting this rating on the front of the packages, in order to avoid the confusion that exists today when looking at the ingredients and nutritional value at the back of the ingredient.
On the other hand, the Grocery Manufacturers of America (a group which represents the interests of big size food companies), declared that they will follow their own nutritional labeling plan called Facts Up Front. According to this plan, the packages will have the amount of nutrients in units and will also show the percentage of a recommended daily value for each nutrient.
The Institute came up with a plan based on the Energy Star symbol which can currently be seen on the packages of appliances in order to proof that meet the standards for energy efficiency.
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