FLOTUS goes big on food label changes

Published February 27, 2014 3:08pm ET



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POLITICO – The Obama administration will unveil the most sweeping update to nutrition labeling on food packages in more than two decades on Thursday — and Americans are in for a reality check about how many calories and how much sugar they are consuming.

What’s considered a serving size would get larger, the type used to display calories would get bolder and added sugars would have to be listed on roughly 700,000 consumer products — from cereal to energy drinks — in a proposal set to be released by the Food and Drug Administration, senior administration officials revealed in a call with reporters Wednesday.


First lady Michelle Obama — whose staff was key in getting the proposal out of FDA, where the labeling revamp has been in the works for 10 years — is slated to announce the changes at a Let’s Move! anniversary event at the White House with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.


“Our guiding principle here is very simple: that you as a parent and a consumer should be able to walk into your local grocery store, pick up an item off the shelf and be able to tell whether it’s good for your family,” Obama says in a statement. “So this is a big deal, and it’s going to make a big difference for families all across this country.”

Read more at POLITICO.