Packaged foods may soon have warning labels about how much sodium, saturated fats, and added sugars they contain in an effort to curb the chronic disease epidemic, which in large part is due to diet.
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration announced a new proposed rule that would require companies to place a “Nutrition Info Box” on the front of their packages with the intention of reducing diet-driven diseases, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.
“The science on saturated fat, sodium and added sugars is clear,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement. “Nearly everyone knows or cares for someone with a chronic disease that is due, in part, to the food we eat. It is time we make it easier for consumers to glance, grab and go. Adding front-of-package nutrition labeling to most packaged foods would do that.”
The new front-of-package label would not replace the “Nutrition Facts” labeling found on the back of packaged foods in the United States. Rather, it would be a new label only indicating the amount of the three nutrients the package contains by percentage of daily value and a “Low,” “Medium,” or “High” designation.
The FDA has designed five different types of labeling, each presenting the same information but with different specifications based on the size of the packaging.
If finalized, the rule would mandate that food manufacturers add some sort of front-of-package nutrition info label to their products within three years after the effective date for businesses with $10 million or more in annual food sales, with all other companies required to comply within four years of the rule’s adoption.
Jim Jones, the FDA deputy commissioner for the Human Foods Program, said in the Tuesday press release that the agency also hoped to “see manufacturers reformulate products to be healthier in response to front-of-package labeling.”
Approximately 75% of adults living in the U.S. are obese or overweight, according to a study published in the medical journal Lancet in November 2024.
“Together, we hope the FDA’s efforts, alongside those of our federal partners, will start stemming the tide of the chronic disease crisis in our country,” Jones said in the press release.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary, based his 2024 independent presidential campaign on the need to address the chronic disease epidemic, particularly obesity and neurological disorders.
After dropping his presidential campaign, he supported Trump with a “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, and Trump said that he would let Kennedy “go wild” on public health.
The public comment period on the proposed rule does not close until May 16, well into the Trump administration.
The Trump transition team did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment as to whether Kennedy or Dr. Marty Makary, Trump’s FDA commissioner nominee, would pick up where Califf left off.
Improving the American diet by reducing consumption of saturated fats, added sugars, and sodium, as well as reducing artificial food additives, has increasingly had bipartisan support.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) proposed in February 2024 that the FDA place warning labels about the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes or obesity on foods with high saturated fat, added sugar, and sodium content. At the time, Sanders was chairman of the Senate Health Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
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In December 2024, the HELP Committee held a hearing about unhealthy foods with both Califf and Jones testifying. Republicans and Democrats on the panel grilled the bureaucrats about how the agency has a tight working relationship with the food industry corporations it is charged with overseeing.
The FDA did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on whether the Trump transition team has been briefed on the proposed rule, but Califf said in the Tuesday press release that his team is “fully committed to pulling all the levers available to the FDA to make nutrition information readily accessible.”