School Challenge & Food Product Labeling

School Challenge & Food Product Labeling. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

In an effort to get America’s children to eat healthier First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the expansion of the Healthier U.S. School Challenge. Vilsack talks about the School Reauthorization Act.

VILSACK: It basically says it’s part of the nations responsibility to all of you to make healthy meals available and we’re going to be working with the First Lady, the President, the Congress to try to make sure that we have the resources necessary for schools to be able to go out and purchase those fruits and vegetables and improve the quality of the meals.

The question is, are you being misled by product labeling at the grocery store? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration intends to crack down on food companies that are making assertions on the front of their products that suggest they are healthier than they really are. The crackdown includes plans to create a uniform labeling system by the end of next year. And, within three months, the FDA will propose new standards that manufacturers must meet to make a nutritional claim on the front of a product. The FDA grew particularly concerned in late August, after a consortium of major foodmakers, rolled out their Smart Choices Program designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices, but the green check-mark label appeared on Cocoa Krispies, Froot Loops and other foods that are not typically noted for their nutritional value.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange Report.

(GRANGE)

That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.