Diet Tip

In 2016, over 3 years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published its final rules on a new Nutrition Facts Label for packaged foods. It would replace the existing nutrition label, which reflects advances in science over the last 25 years. Originally, the labels were to go into effect in 2018, but the food industry managed to get an extension to January 2020.

One of the most important changes to the nutrition label is the requirement to disclose how much added sugar is in a product. The current label include information about total sugars, but consumers can't tell if the sugar is from natural sources (fruit, lactose in milk, etc.) or added (table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, etc.).

The "added sugars" requirement is a big win for public health, as excessive intake of added sugars is a leading cause of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic ailments. The new labeling requirement may also lead manufacturers to decrease the amount of sugars they add to foods.

The "added sugars" line includes both the weight in grams of added sugars, and the percent of the daily value (DV). For example, 8 grams of added sugars are 16 percent of the daily value. By the way, that's just 2 teaspoons of sugar. In teaspoons, the DV for added sugars is about 8 teaspoons.

A vocal group of manufacturers petitioned the FDA for an exemption from the added sugar labeling requirement. These are the producers of honey and maple syrup. When maple syrup is added as ingredient to a food product, it is considered an added sugar and needs to be listed as such.

The FDA bowed, and when maple syrup is sold as a standalone ingredient, its added sugars line will be empty, sort of.  It won't list the added sugars in grams, but it will show the percent of DV. Additionally, producers got an extension until July 2021. See the diagram above.

In any case, the Fooducate app will continue showing you the sugars in maple syrup or honey exactly as they are - added sugars.