Walk down any aisle in a grocery store and you will see an immense amount of foods that contain food labels. After looking at them so many times, people often become desensitized to what is actually contained on the label. Whether planning for meals, monitoring caloric intake or ensuring that the adequate servings from each food group are consumed, food labels contain helpful information about the food item.
History
In order to communicate information about the nutrients of a food item, the Food and Drug Administration mandates that food manufacturers develop and provide a food label. Because the source of the meats and produce vary, there is currently no mandate for providing nutritional information.
Features
Although each and every food item may not contain a food label, the FDA regulates what information must be included on the label. These components include serving sizes, total fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, protein and various details about vitamin content.
Label Contents
The food label must indicate the suggested serving size as well as the estimated amount of serving sizes contained within the packaging. Food labels generally contain two values related to calories, the amount of calories per serving as well the number of calories from fat. The food label also contains three values for the fat content per serving: the total number of fat grams, the number of saturated fat grams and the number of trans fat grams. Some foods may contain other types of fat, which should be reflected on the label. The number of cholesterol and sodium grams are also listed. The number of total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugar and protein, which are all measured in grams, are also included. In addition, a list of vitamins and supplemented contained in the food item are also listed. Vitamins A and C, calcium and iron are commonly listed.
Considerations
It's important for you to remember that the values listed on the label correspond with serving sizes. Eating more than one serving requires you to multiply these values in order to obtain accurate nutritional information. For example, if an item contains 150 calories per serving and you eat three servings, you have consumed 450 calories.
Additional Information
The regulations for food labels change to correspond with research conducted by the FDA. Information on the updates to food labels can be found on the FDA website.
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