Companies Challenging The Food Labeling Modernization Act

A bill presented to Congress on Monday promises a more simplified way of labeling foods, with the intent of making them more informative and useful for consumers. But in spite of this benefit, it could cost companies quite a bit of money to make the necessary changes.

The Food Modernization Act of 2015 aims to lessen the confusion connected with many of the words concerning a food’s nutritional value. As part of this bill companies, would need to overhaul labels, making them more uniform and thus easier for consumers to understand. The changes to food labels would include updating serving size requirements, making serving size information more prominent, and requiring more information regarding added sugar.

While the bill is a welcome change for consumers, completely re-vamping labels is no easy task for companies, nor is it cheap. Because this bill is trying to point consumers in a healthier direction, many companies must change their products in order to meet these new expectations. Changes to products mean that companies must do research and educate themselves in ways to make their products meet the requirements.

The task of changing the labels themselves could take companies a lot of time, as they need to re-design their labels almost entirely. The bill aims to create a new norm where prospective buyers can locate labels quickly and read through ingredients. This means companies need to make larger labels, perhaps with nutritional information placed on the front. Additionally, nutrition facts on these new labels need to include ingredients that consumers recognize and understand.

Another change that may come about with these new regulations involves the size of the products companies sell. If a consumer looks at the newer, more simplified label and recognizes the possibility of consuming more servings than they intended, it may turn them away from buying a product. As a result of this, companies may feel compelled to make products fit within the serving size guidelines.

Companies will need some time to get used to The Food Modernization Act. But, if companies work efficiently to get their products up to the standards of this bill it could make their products more appealing to a whole new demographic of consumers, while also helping to encourage consumers to make healthier choices when it comes to food.