Food Labels Often Misleading Say FDA

part of the campaign to drive down the number of obese individuals in America

The United States Food and Drug Administration has fired a broadside to warn food companies that they must not mislead consumers about the nutritional content of their products. They recently notified seventeen food manufacturing companies that they were in violation of the law for having made false and misleading statements on food packaging. The FDA sent out warning letters saying that they would take further action unless things were changed.

The FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg stressed that having correct food labeling was an essential part of the campaign to drive down the number of obese individuals in America. She said that she wanted to work alongside the food industry to promote more nutritional information being made available to consumers. Mr. Michael Jacobson from the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that they were very happy that the FDA had taken action and that they had been pushing for this for a long time.

Ukmedix News believes that as a rule you should be extremely skeptical of any health claims printed on food items especially those that say things like ‘ no cholesterol’ and ‘no trans fat’. Very often food companies advertise the fact that there isn’t one type of fat but fail to mention that there are other types of fat present in the product. You should read food labels carefully and look out for high salt and sugar contents which are detrimental to health. In fact you should try and stay away from processed food as much as possible and stick to natural foodstuffs when you can.

We have previously published research at Ukmedix News which shows that people who go for the products which are advertised as low fat or low calorie items tend to eat more of them which completely negates the point of consuming these foodstuffs in the first place.

At Ukmedix News we believe that stricter regulation should be brought into play in both America and the European Union especially if governments are serious about getting results in dealing with obesity crises.