Smart Choices
A new, voluntary, nutrition-labelling system, “Smart Choices,” made its debut at the American Dietetic Association’s Food and Nutrition Conference this week.
To help Americans make smarter nutrition choices and improve public health, a diverse group of scientists, academicians, health organizations, food and beverage manufacturers and retailers have created a new, voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labeling system called the Smart Choices Program(TM).
The Smart Choices Program was motivated by the need for a single, trusted and reliable front-of-pack nutrition labeling program that U.S. food manufacturers and retailers could voluntarily adopt to help consumers make more nutritious food and beverage choices that fit within their daily calorie needs.
The Smart Choices Program was unveiled today at the American Dietetic Association’s Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo and will begin appearing on food and beverage packaging next year.
The Smart Choices Program was developed under the leadership of The Keystone Center, a non-profit organization that specializes in creating consensus solutions to public health problems. The Smart Choices Program includes a symbol that identifies more nutritious choices within specific product categories and provides calorie information that identifies calories per serving and servings per container on front-of-pack, with the intent to help people stay within their daily calorie needs.
Several companies have stated that, although not all the details are yet settled, they are likely implementers of the Smart Choices Program. These include Coca-Cola (US), ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kellogg Company (US), Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Unilever (US) and Wal-Mart. Companies that have joined The Keystone Center’s Food and Nutrition Roundtable recently, including Nestle, are in the process of reviewing the program elements and assessing possible implementation of the program.
Products bearing “Smart Choices” program label will start appearing on store shelves in mid-2009.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out…the criteria used for the labelling looks sound enough, but the devil is always in the details. The list of participating companies is practically a “Who’s Who” of mega-junk food manufacturers/marketers, after all…
