New “Smart Choice” Label
Posted on | November 9, 2008 | 1 Comment
By mid 2009 you may start seeing a new label, Smart Choice, showing up on some food packaging. The idea is to make it easier to quickly make a better choice without having to read all of the details on the nutrition label or ingredient listing. But what exactly makes a food a “smart choice”? Who decides what is smart? Will all “smart” choices be labeled or only certain ones?
To be a smart choice, a food cannot exceed certain amounts of total fat, saturated fat, trans fats, sodium, cholesterol and added sugars. It also needs to be in a certain food group (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat or fat free dairy) or have nutrients such as calcium, fiber or vitamins. The Smart Choice labels will display the number of calories and calories per serving. I looked over the requirements for usage of the label and discovered that my personal requirements are already more stringent, especially when it comes to added sugars (1/4 of the calories could come from this!) and sodium. Perhaps it will still be helpful for enough people to make the effort worthwhile.
Here are some of the limits a product must meet in order to display the Smart Choice label:
| Total Fat | Less than 35% of calories or less than 3 grams per serving |
| Saturated Fat | Less than 10% of calories or less than 1 gram per serving |
| Trans Fat | Less than 1/2 gram per serving |
| Cholesterol | Less than 60 mg per serving |
| Added sugars | Less than 25% of total calories |
| Sodium | Less than 480 mg per serving |
More details can be found at http://smartchoicesprogram.com/nutrition.html
The Smart Choice program was set up by the Keystone Center, a nonprofit group. Food companies can choose whether they would like to participate, so not all “smart choices” will necessarily be labeled that way. Several large companies including Kraft, ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kellog, Coca-Cola and Pepsico will likely participate.
The list of companies that will probably choose to participate seems to include those who manufacutre a lot of foods that aren’t so great for us. It doesn’t look like it includes those who fill the produce section with apples, carrots and other very smart choices although those foods would most certainly qualify. I wonder if a candy bar enriched with enough vitamins could manage to meet the standards? I’m curious to see how this turns out and if it impacts what manufacturers offer or what consumers choose to purchase.
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November 19th, 2008 @ 4:32 pm
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