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Dietary fiber update leads to first Nutrition Facts label overhaul in more than 20 years

FDA’s compliance date for the updated Nutrition Facts label is Jan. 1, 2020 for manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales; Jan. 1, 2021 for smaller manufacturers.

The FDA provided this image to identify what's different with the new Nutrition Facts label.
The FDA provided this image to identify what's different with the new Nutrition Facts label.

In March, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., announced a multi-year Nutrition Innovation Strategy intended to drive additional actions that the agency can take to reduce preventable death and disease related to poor nutrition. Part of this effort includes taking final steps on the new Nutrition Facts label.

On June 14, Gottlieb issued a statement that included the following details:

"This is our first overhaul of the food label in more than 20 years. It’s aimed at making sure that consumers have access to an updated label that’s based on updated science and provides more information to empower them to choose healthful diets. I also recognize that it’s crucial for the FDA to provide clear expectations so that industry can meet our new labeling requirements and that we provide the greatest flexibility possible, while still maintaining an approach that is grounded in rigorous science.

The agency issued decisions on citizen petitions regarding additional dietary fibers. We also issued a guidance that will allow food manufacturers to count these fibers when calculating the total amount of fiber per serving to declare on the Nutrition Facts label. They can also be counted as fiber on the Supplement Facts label. The eight new fibers are: mixed plant cell wall fibers (a broad category that includes fibers like sugar cane fiber and apple fiber, among many others); arabinoxylan; alginate; inulin and inulin-type fructans; high amylose starch (resistant starch 2); galactooligosaccharide; polydextrose; and resistant maltodextrin/dextrin.”

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