
Reading Time: 6 minutes
By: Stephanie Marks, Director Of Quality Assurance and Commercialization
I cannot tell you how many times I am asked the question, “Can I eat this?” It is typically preceded with a description of the food, say a yogurt, and a very vague idea of the storage conditions: it’s been in my lunch bag since yesterday, I forgot to stick it in the fridge, and it says it expired 3 days ago. It is at these moments that I wish I had a mobile quality lab to analyze the food in question. Since that is not an option, I go with the next best tool, our sense of taste and smell. If it looks ok, smells ok, and taste ok, then it should be ok to eat.
In this article, you will find:
- Information on ‘best by’ dates
- New FDA regulations on nutrition facts panels
- The 4 major differences between old facts panels and new
These conversations usually lead to questions about best by and use by dates on packaging. According to the FDA, “Between consumers and the food industry, Americans are throwing out about one third of our food – about $161 billion worth each year”. It is believed that the uncertainty about the meaning of the dates listed on food packaging contributes to 20% of this waste. It is easy to understand the confusion when consumers see many different terms used by manufacturers including use by, best by, or expires on. In an effort to bring clarity to the consumer, the FDA is working in conjunction with the food industry to standardize the use of the term “best if used by”. This term will be used on packaged foods where the date is related to optimal food quality and not safety. If stored properly, these products can continue to be consumed even after this date has passed.
According to the FDA, “Between consumers and the food industry, Americans are throwing out about one third of our food – about $161 billion worth each year”
The FDA has also passed new regulations surrounding the nutrition facts panel to empower consumers to make better-informed decisions in the grocery aisles. This is the first major change to the nutrition facts panel in over 20 years, and there are four main differences. The first is the serving size is now larger and presented in bold font. Additionally the FDA updated the serving size of some foods to reflect actual American diets, even if that is not the recommended amount of how much to eat. For example, a large bag of chips in a vending machine used to contain 2-3 servings even though a consumer would typically eat the whole bag. The facts panel will now reflect the bag as one serving and eliminate the need for the consumer to calculate for the whole bag.
The second change is total calories are displayed in a larger, bolder font. This makes it easy to locate and draws the consumer’s attention to this important piece of nutrition information.
The third update was to the recommended daily values. Some nutrients were adjusted to keep up with new nutrition guidelines from the medical community. For example, the recommended daily intake for fiber was increased from 25 to 28 grams, and sodium was decreased from 2,400 to 2,300 milligrams. A good rule of thumb to follow here is 5% DV or less per serving is considered low and 20% DV or more per serving is considered high.
The final change was to include the declaration of added sugars, Vitamin D, and potassium. Consuming too many added sugars can make it difficult for an individual to meet their other daily nutritional goals while staying within their recommended calorie limits. Added sugars can come directly from added sucrose but can also be contributed by syrups, honey, and fruit or vegetable juice concentrates. Vitamin D and potassium were added because many Americans are deficient in these nutrients. A diet high in these nutrients can reduce the risk of osteoporosis and high blood pressure, respectively. Vitamin D and potassium replaced Vitamin C and Vitamin A because deficiencies in these nutrients are rare today.
Food labels can be overwhelming, especially because there are so many choices in the market today. I trust you won’t have to solely rely on your senses to decide if you can eat that — I hope that this helps make sense of some of the changes you’ll be seeing on food packaging and make it easier for you and your family to make informed choices.
Reading Time: 6 minutes
By: Stephanie Marks, Director Of Quality Assurance and Commercialization
I cannot tell you how many times I am asked the question, “Can I eat this?” It is typically preceded with a description of the food, say a yogurt, and a very vague idea of the storage conditions: it’s been in my lunch bag since yesterday, I forgot to stick it in the fridge, and it says it expired 3 days ago. It is at these moments that I wish I had a mobile quality lab to analyze the food in question. Since that is not an option, I go with the next best tool, our sense of taste and smell. If it looks ok, smells ok, and taste ok, then it should be ok to eat.
In this article, you will find:
- Information on ‘best by’ dates
- New FDA regulations on nutrition facts panels
- The 4 major differences between old facts panels and new
These conversations usually lead to questions about best by and use by dates on packaging. According to the FDA, “Between consumers and the food industry, Americans are throwing out about one third of our food – about $161 billion worth each year”. It is believed that the uncertainty about the meaning of the dates listed on food packaging contributes to 20% of this waste. It is easy to understand the confusion when consumers see many different terms used by manufacturers including use by, best by, or expires on. In an effort to bring clarity to the consumer, the FDA is working in conjunction with the food industry to standardize the use of the term “best if used by”. This term will be used on packaged foods where the date is related to optimal food quality and not safety. If stored properly, these products can continue to be consumed even after this date has passed.
According to the FDA, “Between consumers and the food industry, Americans are throwing out about one third of our food – about $161 billion worth each year”
The FDA has also passed new regulations surrounding the nutrition facts panel to empower consumers to make better-informed decisions in the grocery aisles. This is the first major change to the nutrition facts panel in over 20 years, and there are four main differences. The first is the serving size is now larger and presented in bold font. Additionally the FDA updated the serving size of some foods to reflect actual American diets, even if that is not the recommended amount of how much to eat. For example, a large bag of chips in a vending machine used to contain 2-3 servings even though a consumer would typically eat the whole bag. The facts panel will now reflect the bag as one serving and eliminate the need for the consumer to calculate for the whole bag.
The second change is total calories are displayed in a larger, bolder font. This makes it easy to locate and draws the consumer’s attention to this important piece of nutrition information.
The third update was to the recommended daily values. Some nutrients were adjusted to keep up with new nutrition guidelines from the medical community. For example, the recommended daily intake for fiber was increased from 25 to 28 grams, and sodium was decreased from 2,400 to 2,300 milligrams. A good rule of thumb to follow here is 5% DV or less per serving is considered low and 20% DV or more per serving is considered high.
The final change was to include the declaration of added sugars, Vitamin D, and potassium. Consuming too many added sugars can make it difficult for an individual to meet their other daily nutritional goals while staying within their recommended calorie limits. Added sugars can come directly from added sucrose but can also be contributed by syrups, honey, and fruit or vegetable juice concentrates. Vitamin D and potassium were added because many Americans are deficient in these nutrients. A diet high in these nutrients can reduce the risk of osteoporosis and high blood pressure, respectively. Vitamin D and potassium replaced Vitamin C and Vitamin A because deficiencies in these nutrients are rare today.
Food labels can be overwhelming, especially because there are so many choices in the market today. I trust you won’t have to solely rely on your senses to decide if you can eat that — I hope that this helps make sense of some of the changes you’ll be seeing on food packaging and make it easier for you and your family to make informed choices.
I visit everyday a few websites and blogs to read articles or reviews, except this web site
gives feature based writing.
Feel free to visit my webpage :: Bongacams Mobi пары
Wow! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a entirely
different subject but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Superb choice of colors!
Feel free to viit my homepage Claudia
Hi to all, how is the whole thing, I think every one is getting more from this
web page, and your views are nice in favor of new users.
Take a look at my blog all i want for christmas is you google trends
A fascinating discussion is worth comment. I do think that you need to write more about this subject matter,
it might not be a taboo subject but usually people don’t talk about such issues.
To the next! All the best!!
Also visit my web page – stop trending searches
You made some good points there. I checked on the net for
additional information about the issue and found most people will go along with your views on this web site.
Also visit myy web page … google trending news
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general, are authorized and regulated in the Philippines.
Contemplating how many are out there, finding the perfect Bitcoin wallet could be an extremely taxing process.
It’s vital to make sure your wallet of choice
permits you to do all 3 without a lot effort. It’s no secret that studying how
to make use of a brand new Bitcoin wallet could be a difficult process.
This issue might be generally missed, but that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.
So to make sure that doesn’t happen to our reader, we offer a suggestion, eToro.
Fortunately, eToro supplies exactly that!
All in all, when you are taking into consideration the plethora of features eToro
affords exterior of its Bitcoin wallet, it turns into clear why they’ve taken the
top spot. Some have unnecessary options which are
unlikely to be used in the real world, others are costly or untrustworthy.
To help our readers higher understand what elements are important
when deciding on a Bitcoin wallet, we’ve damaged down three key things to look out for.