Nutritional labeling

Nutritional content Nutritional labeling Nutritional value... 

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. 

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 ...

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. 

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. 

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-... 

Learning how to read nutrition labels (Figure 8.1). This can help a person determine how many calories a particular food item has and also understand how much fat, carbohydrate, and protein is contained in a food. 

Around 80% of pre-packaged foods carry some nutritional information and failure to do so is likely to lose sales. There will be those customers who have medical advice about diet coupled to those who are trying to lose weight. Both classes of customers are likely to ignore products that do not have a nutritional label. Indeed, some may view the omission as an attempt to cover up an unfavourable situation. 

The EU Influence. The EU has recognised that different nutritional labelling requirements of member states could constitute a barrier to cross border trade. Directive 90/496/EEC was adopted to this end in 1990 to harmonise nutritional labelling. While this directive does... 

The Menu Education and Labeling, or MEAL, Act, would result in menus that look like the nutrition facts panels found on food in super-(20) markets. Those panels are required by the 1990 Nutrition Labeling... 

Nutrition and Labeling Act (NLEA), 23 470 Nutrition labeling, 25 784, 786t Nutritive ingredients, in pet foods, 10 851-... 

Council Directive No. 90/496/EEC on nutrition labelling for foodstuffs, Official Journal of the European Communities 1990 L276 40-44. 

According to the directive 90/496/EEC on nutrition labeling of foodstuffs [401], the vitamin levels in food have to be reported as relative daily allowance (RDA%). This information is mandatory on the label if any claim about their content [402] or addition of vitamins [403] is made. The European Union Regulation 1925/2006 stipulates the vitamin formulations that may be added to foods [403]. 

Trans fats have been added to the nutrition labels of foods. What next Will nutrition labels eventually become so detailed that they rarely get read by consumers At what point does a label provide "too much information" ... 

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