Added-sugar label to shake up menus

Sugar seems to be everywhere in the United States, and now the Food and Drug Administration will begin highlighting just how much of it people eat.

Beginning in July 2018, the "Nutrition Facts" labels on packaged foods will list added sugars separately from total sugars. The updated labels will also assign a percent daily value to added sugars, revealing to consumers that, for example, the 65 grams of added sugar in a 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola constitutes 130 percent of the daily recommended amount.

Advocates of the label change point to the reduction of trans fats, which joined the Nutrition Facts box in 2006.

Artificial trans fats, usually in the form of "partially hydrogenated oils," were once considered healthier replacements for saturated fats. That began to change in 1990 after a Dutch study found that partially hydrogenated soybean oil raised low-density lipoprotein and lowered high-density lipoprotein. In other words, it raised bad cholesterol and lowered good cholesterol.

The food industry had come to rely on partially hydrogenated oils to extend the shelf life of packaged goods and to fry foods at restaurants. The industry was not happy with the Dutch study and pushed for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct its own, with financial support from groups such as the Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils and the National Association of Margarine Manufacturers. The USDA study also found that trans fats might be worse for heart health than saturated fats, setting in motion the long fade of the ingredient.

Last year the FDA decided to ban partially hydrogenated oils, starting in June 2018, unless a specific exemption is granted.

But consumers had already learned to steer clear even before regulation removed most from the food supply. A 2012 survey found that nearly half of consumers were trying to avoid trans fat. A study by Mintel last year ranked "trans fat-free" as the most important "free-from" claim, with 78 percent of label-conscious shoppers looking for it. Even though the trade groups have asked to allow low levels of trans fat use, the industry has been preparing for the end of partially hydrogenated oil for more than a decade. From 2002 to 2009 -- when the requirement was still only to list trans fats, not eliminate them -- trans fats have been reduced or eliminated in more than 10,000 products.

Something similar is likely to happen to added sugar.

"It is hard for people to know if [added sugars] are in their food without the label," said Kelly Brownell, dean of Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and an expert in food law and legislation. Once shoppers know, they might not want to buy.

"Information like this on the nutrition facts label begins driving consumer behavior, and that in turn drives the industry," said Jim O'Hara, director of health promotion policy at Center for Science in the Public Interest.

How companies will cut sugar content is unclear. Partially hydrogenated oils are often replaced with palm oil, which is better for consumer health but introduces environmental problems. Monsanto Co. and DuPont have also come out with genetically modified soybeans that produce healthier oils. No similar replacements exist for sugar.

"The Holy Grail in the beverage industry is to find that sweetener," said Kenneth Shea, a Bloomberg analyst focused on consumer products. "Stevia has come close, sucralose has come close, but no one's hit that home run yet."

Artificial sweeteners are plentiful but come with their own unanswered questions. "The jury is out on the consequences of those," Brownell said.

Certain foods are likely to be redesigned, Shea said, especially those with healthy connotations. The food industry has similar expectations.

"We certainly anticipate that food companies will be under pressure to reformulate," said Courtney Gaine, president and chief executive of the Sugar Association. She said she expects breakfast cereals and yogurts, which are close to the 20 percent threshold for total recommended daily value of added sugars, to undergo inevitable changes.

"The question will become: Is a product with 130 percent daily value of added sugar going to be able to compete in the marketplace?" O'Hara said. The Coca-Cola Co. declined to comment, but the company has already been pushing smaller packaging, which would cut the sugar in a single serving.

Companies may look for other ways to get creative. "There is likely to be litigation over what is and isn't added sugar," said Stephen Gardner, an attorney at the Dallas-based Stanley Law Group and former director of litigation at CSPI.

A Section on 06/05/2016

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