FDA Urged to Develop Nutrition Ratings

Nov. 30, 2006 — -- For many, grocery shopping today is more about hunting for bargains; it's about finding the healthiest offerings on the shelves.

Labels play a big part in helping shoppers separate the healthy choices from the junk. But with dozens of apparent ratings systems out there -- from Kraft's "Sensible Solution" accolade to the American Heart Association's "Heart-Check" endorsement, consumers may be left wondering how much weight these approvals carry.

Now, the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is petitioning the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to design a national set of symbols to help consumers quickly identify healthier foods.

"The supermarket is teeming with competing 'healthy food' symbols that run the gamut from highly helpful to fatally flawed," said CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson in a press release today. "But a prominent and reliable symbol on the fronts of packages would be a tremendous help to those harried shoppers racing through the supermarket."

With the suggestion come concerns from some that a confusing or oversimplified rating system may be ineffective -- or even do more harm than good.

Some experts, however, support the suggestion.

"Simplified food labels would be very helpful for consumers," says Dr. James Anderson, professor of medicine and clinical nutrition at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. "Each Wednesday, I walk the aisles of a supermarket for exercise and observation. I see consumers puzzling over labels."

"This is practical," says David Katz, associate clinical professor of public health and medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. "Other countries have done it. Our lab has developed an index for this use, which will be released soon. It can, and should, be done."

The FDA said in a statement released today that it looks forward to receiving the CSPI petition.

The U.S. government would not be the first to implement such a plan. The United Kingdom and Sweden already implemented a symbol-based nutritional ratings system. And recently, the Hannaford's chain of grocery stores developed a star-based system, rating saturated fat and cholesterol content of foods.