New Labels to Reveal Added Sugars

The Food and Drug Administration just announced new food label requirements that will for the first time show the “added sugars” found in the majority of all grocery items—including those at natural food stores. This change will bring educational opportunities for retailers carrying grocery items that do NOT have added sugars. While this is seemingly a good fit for natural food co-ops, it may not be an entirely comfortable stance given the pervasive presence of added sugars.

Advocates for healthful food often claim that all sugars are not alike, and evidence for such arguments is strong, although specific examples are still debated. But the deeper diet and food system challenges lie in trying to reduce or eliminate the added sugars that disrupt normal metabolism, taste discrimination, and weight control in most people. “Natural food” retailers and their customers will now find it harder to overlook all the unnatural sugar added to many popular products. Yogurt with fruit, ketchups and sauces and soups, all juices from concentrate: these and over 60 percent of packaged grocery and juice products feature added sugar. A recent book lists some 90 words that mean added sugar—from agave juice to turbinado, cane sugar to corn syrup, malt to maple, fructose to rice syrup (Sweetening of the Global Diet, by Barry Popkin and Corinna Hawkes, cited in NYT 5/22/2016, “It Isn’t Easy to Figure Out Which Foods Contain Sugar”). 

One prominent food educator, Professor Marion Nestle, called the upcoming change “a huge victory” and provided numerous links to background articles and official comments at her blog: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2016/05/new-food-label-congratulations-lets-move-fda/.