What’s on Your Label?
Eleven year old Derek Wood of Sterritt, Alabama, went grocery shopping with his mother, Cline, at a local store. They picked up essential items and stopped by the bakery that had desserts such as cookies. Later that evening, Cline took a bite of the cookie, saw there were no nuts, and gave the rest to her son, Derek. Derek died of anaphylactic shock due to an allergic reaction to nuts in the cookie. The cookie had no labeling of ingredients of nuts (Green). The current food labeling system faces many challenges of labeling that is misleading, and labeling used more for advertising than informational purposes, as well as only implementing basic regulations that have not been revisited in over a century. The FDA should implement …show more content…
We see with the establishment of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. According to the fda.gov website “Significant Dates in U.S. Food and Drug Law History” states, “The law preempts state requirements about food standards, nutrition labeling, and health claims and, for the first time, authorizes some health claims for foods. The food ingredient panel, serving sizes, and terms such as "low fat" and "light" are standardized”. History of food labeling initiated in 1990, and the most recent of updates in food labeling laws was conducted in 2004. In that time frame nutrition labels became standardized, a series of reforms were initiated, and food labels were modified to include trans fat and calorie counts. The most recent actions taken regarding food labeling was conducted in 2004 by the FDA who enforced the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. This act requires labeling that accounts for majority of food that cause allergies such as eggs, peanuts, fish, nuts, shellfish, and cow’s milk, and wheat. No regulations have been updated by the FDA regarding food labeling since 2004 to this date. While the FDA and USDA are at work maintaining and building the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, advertisers and marketing companies are also at
Eleven year old Derek Wood of Sterritt, Alabama, went grocery shopping with his mother, Cline, at a local store. They picked up essential items and stopped by the bakery that had desserts such as cookies. Later that evening, Cline took a bite of the cookie, saw there were no nuts, and gave the rest to her son, Derek. Derek died of anaphylactic shock due to an allergic reaction to nuts in the cookie. The cookie had no labeling of ingredients of nuts (Green). The current food labeling system faces many challenges of labeling that is misleading, and labeling used more for advertising than informational purposes, as well as only implementing basic regulations that have not been revisited in over a century. The FDA should implement …show more content…
We see with the establishment of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. According to the fda.gov website “Significant Dates in U.S. Food and Drug Law History” states, “The law preempts state requirements about food standards, nutrition labeling, and health claims and, for the first time, authorizes some health claims for foods. The food ingredient panel, serving sizes, and terms such as "low fat" and "light" are standardized”. History of food labeling initiated in 1990, and the most recent of updates in food labeling laws was conducted in 2004. In that time frame nutrition labels became standardized, a series of reforms were initiated, and food labels were modified to include trans fat and calorie counts. The most recent actions taken regarding food labeling was conducted in 2004 by the FDA who enforced the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. This act requires labeling that accounts for majority of food that cause allergies such as eggs, peanuts, fish, nuts, shellfish, and cow’s milk, and wheat. No regulations have been updated by the FDA regarding food labeling since 2004 to this date. While the FDA and USDA are at work maintaining and building the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, advertisers and marketing companies are also at