nutrition labels

[darkoshi]

Starting in the last 4 years or so, the requirements for food nutrition labels in the U.S. have changed:
4 Major Changes Are Coming To Food Nutrition Labels (May 2016)
Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label: What Parents Need to Know (April 2020)

The Nutrition Facts Label: Its History, Purpose and Updates (March 2020)

There are four vitamins and minerals that are required to be listed on every updated Nutrition Facts label: vitamin D, calcium, iron and potassium. While calcium and iron were also required before the latest update, vitamin D and potassium are new to the list, replacing vitamins A and C. The swap was made because Americans get enough vitamin A and C in their diet but fall short on vitamin D and potassium.

So Vitamin A and C are usually no longer listed, which I did not realize. But what about all the other vitamins and minerals? I seem to recall that labels used to list many other vitamins and minerals too, didn't they? Now they hardly ever do.

There have been multiple times over the last few years where I've looked at the nutrition label on some product that I'd expect to be healthy, such as vegetables or fruit, and have thought to myself, "According to this it has basically no vitamins or minerals at all, so it must not be that healthy after all. Fruit and vegetables are overrated."

I wonder if other people have had that reaction too.


Update, 2021/01/23: I didn't think to mention it before, but it was a false expectation of mine which caused that reaction. I expected that if a product had a measurable amount of certain vitamins or minerals, that those amounts would normally be listed on the label. I thought they would only be omitted when they weren't present at more than trace levels.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

Manufacturers aren't required to list all the vitamins and minerals, which is why you're not seeing them on all those cans of vitamin-rich veggies and fruits. But some manufacturers - particularly the ones who are trying to distract customers from the fact that their foods have an insane amount of fat and sodium and sugar - choose to list all the vitamins and minerals. Cereal manufacturers, who *add* vitamins and minerals to their cereals, are particularly fond of doing this.

[darkoshi]

Yes, I've noticed that with the cereals. The cereals I tend to buy use whole grains, aren't enriched and only list the required nutrients, but some of them are also fairly high in sugar.