Labelling, nutritional

Nutritional content Nutritional labeling Nutritional value... 

An important aspect of U.S. food laws is mandatory nutritional labeling. Nutritional labeling in Canada and Europe is voluntary and only becomes mandatory if a health claim is made. 

Nutrition labeling—Nutrition labeling is required for all retail food products, including fresh produce, fish, and seafood. NOTE WELL Subsequently President Bush ruled that the law would apply only to packaged foods. 

McDonald, R.E. and Mossoba, M.M., Trans fatty acids Labelling, nutrition, and analysis, in Food Lipids and Health, McDonald, R.E. and Min, D.B. (Eds.), Marcel Dekker,... 

In the United States, additional ramifications maybe expected from FDA s announcement of final regulations for new food labeling requirements under the directive of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (2). Among other things, these regulations limit health claims that can be made on food labels. They also require new information on nutrient content, and limit the use of descriptors such as low and free in association with calories, fat levels, and other food product characteristics. 

Commonly, a juice drink contains 10% fruit juice, which usually is a blend of several fruits. The 1990 Federal Nutrition and Labeling Act requites declaration of juice content so that the consumer can make a more informed choice (3). With cocktails and juice drinks, added sugars, acids, flavorings, colorings, and nutrients can be used to provide a wide variety of stable products of uniform quaUty. Because drinks requite less juice than 100% juice products, the drinks can be sold at a lower price. 

This article discusses several aspects of processed meat products including (/) health and safety concerns (2) meat processing ingredients, procedures, and machinery (J) ha2ard analysis critical control point (4) fat reduction in meat products (5) sous-vide processing and (6) nutritional labeling. 

Nutritional Labeling Descriptors. In order to avoid confusion, descriptive terms must be accompanied by definitions which adequately explain the terms. In the case of nutrition-related claims, analytical sampling offers a means of assuring the accuracy of the stated claims. The USDA s FSIS has proposed a Hst of descriptors relevant for meat and poultry products (Table 3). 

Table 3. Proposed Descriptors for Nutrition Labeling in Meat and Poultry Products ...

Nutritional Value of Milk Products. Milk is considered one of the principal sources of nutrition for humans. Some people are intolerant to one or more components of milk so must avoid the product or consume a treated product. One example is intolerance to lactose in milk. Fluid milk is available in which the lactose has been treated to make it more digestible. The consumption of milk fat, either in fluid milk or in products derived from milk, has decreased markedly in the 1990s. Whole milk sales decreased 12% between 1985 and 1988, whereas the sales of low fat milk increased 165%, and skimmed milk sales increased 48% (35). Nutritionists have recommended that fat consumed provide no more than 30 calories, and that consumption of calories be reduced. Generally, a daily diet of 2000—3000 cal/d is needed depending on many variables, such as gender, type of work, age, body responses, exercise, etc. Further, there is concern about cholesterol [57-88-5] and density of fat consumed. Complete information on the nutritive value of milk and milk products is provided on product labels (36) (see also Table 4). 

Information about a food s potassium content is required on the nutrition facts panel only if the food contains added potassium as a nutrient or if claims about it as a nutrient appear on the label. In all other cases, it is voluntary. The recommended daily value for potassium is 3500 mg. The following labels have been designated for foods high potassium (700 mg or more per serving) good source of potassium (350—665 mg per serving) more or added potassium (at least 350 mg more per serving than the reference food) (43). 

Other expansions of FDA s authority include the Dmg Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984, commonly known as the 1984 Amendments or the Waxman-Hatch Act, which was passed to attain quicker marketing of safe, effective, and less expensive generic dmgs and the Safe Medical Device Amendments of 1990, which was passed to correct perceived weaknesses in the implementation of the 1976 Device Amendments. Congress further expanded FDA authority over nutrition labeling and health and nutrient content claims on food labels with the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. 

Dietary fiber is the accepted terminology ia the United States for nutritional labeling. Total dietary fiber (I DF) and its subfractions, insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) and soluble dietary fiber (SDF), are defined analytically by official methods (3—5). 

AOAC Method 985.29for TDF. This AO AC method (3), referred to as the method of Prosky and co-workers (4), was cited in the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act of 1990 as the general analytical approach for food labeling of dietary fiber content. The method has undergone several modifications for IDE and for the primary fractions, SDE and IDE. 

How would that same packet be labeled in the United States if the information has to be given in nutritional calories per cup (There are 4.18 joules in one calorie and 2 cups to a pint.)... 

The ABC cereal company is developing a new type of breakfast cereal to compete with a rival product that they call Brand X. You are asked to compare the energy content of the two cereals to see if the new ABC product is lower in calories so you burn 1.00-g samples of the cereals in oxygen in a calorimeter with a heat capacity of 600. J-(°C). When the Brand X cereal sample burned, the temperature rose from 300.2 K to 309.0 K. When the ABC cereal sample burned, the temperature rose from 299.0 K to 307.5 K. (a) What is the heat output of each sample (b) One serving of each cereal is 30.0 g. How would you label the packages of the two cereals to indicate the fuel value per 30.0-g serving in joules in nutritional Calories (kilocalories) ... 

Schoeller, D.A. 1988 Measurement of energy expenditure in free-living humans by using doubly labeled water. Journo/of Nutrition 118 1278-1289. 

Generation of data on the nutrient content of agricultural products and foods forms the basis for estimating nutrient intakes of populations via dietary surveys, nutritional labelling for consumer protection, nutrition education for consumer food choice, home and institution menu planning and food purchase, and for research in nutrient requirements and metabolism, toxicant chemical composition is used to assess effects of farm management practices, crop culture, and food processing on chemical content and implications for human health. 

Much of the analytical data on the nutrient content of foods is generated using official methods of analysis (e.g. AO AC International). An evaluation of AO AC Methods of Analysis for Nutritional Labelling is available (Sullivan and Carpenter 1993). While these methods have often been studied for a variety of food matrices, applicability over the entire range of food matrices has not been formally studied in most cases. In addition, RMs are not available over the entire range of food matrices (Wolf... 

Sullivan D, Carpenter D, eds. (1993) Methods of Analysis for Nutrition Labelling. AOAC International, Gaithersburg MD, USA. 

The 2000 U.S. Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary, USP 24-NF 19, was published in October 1999. It became official on 01.01.2000. USP-NF is one of, if not the most, widely recognized of the world s pharmacopoeial compendia of standards for drug strength, quality, purity, packaging, labelling and storage. USP-NF also provides standards for devices and diagnostics, as well as nutritional supplements. 

For regulatory purposes, food-based RMs play an important role in validating accuracy of analytical data from use of routine methodology. For example, the quality of data obtained by analytical measurements serves an important function with regard to ensuring nutritional label claims. Unfortunately, and historically in some cases, assay data for the same analyte can vary greatly from laboratory to laboratory. Evalua-... 

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