Trump Administration Gives Industry More Time to Adopt New Nutrition Fact Label

NPR covers the FDA’s decision to delay an Obama-era menu labeling rule.

The Food and Drug Administration has delayed the deadline for food companies to adopt a new Nutrition Facts label on food and beverage packages.

A design for the new label was unveiled by Michelle Obama in 2014 at a White House event held on the anniversary of her campaign to fight obesity.

The updated label highlights the calories in packaged food and drinks using a big font with bold lettering. It also labels added sugars.

Originally, large companies had been given until July 2018 to comply with the new label, and at least one food giant, Mars Inc., has said it could be ready to meet that deadline. But several industry groups asked for more time.

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But a free-market advocate applauded today’s decision. The “decision by the Trump administration to delay a new round of food labeling mandates was the right decision,” Michelle Minton, a consumer policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, wrote in a statement. Minton added: “Federal regulators were about to impose burdens on our nation’s food companies while making nutrition labels harder for consumers to interpret.”

Read the full article at NPR.