WHERE DID THE NUTRITION FACTS GO?!As we have been taste testing all this delicious gluten free food, we have been paying more attention to what is on the label. The other day, we were having some gourmet tortilla chips and noticed that there were no nutrition facts on the package. A few days later, we were having some brownies that were also missing the nutrition facts. When we didn’t see those nutrition fact labels it brought up the question of when are nutrition facts required. The nutrition facts label is our key to being informed about what we are eating. In fact, we have become accustomed to it. After digging around on the US FDA website, I was able to find the answer. Hidden among the thousands of links on the website was the one word I was looking for…Exemptions.
The one thing that caught my eye on the list is something called a Small Business Exemption. I assume that formulating nutrition facts and getting them on a package is a costly process. You have to pay a lab to analyze your product for the nutrition content and you have to do this for every single one of your products. If it’s only for a couple of products, it’s probably not too bad, but if it’s for a whole line of products, the cost adds up. Small businesses typically don’t have as much financial backing as larger companies and it would be difficult for them to finance all of these costs. That’s where the Small business exemption comes in. If your company has less than $50,000 in food sales you are exempt from putting nutrition facts on your products. There is also an exception that says if you have more than $50,000 in food sales, and your total sales of food and non-food items is less than $500,000 you are also exempt.
Other exemptions include food served or sold in restaurants, food served and sold for immediate consumption, and food processed and prepared primarily in a retail establishment and not outside of that establishment. Restaurants, cafeterias, bakeries and deli’s fall into almost all of these categories. Some of these places voluntarily provide this information to their customers, but most don’t. This brings us to the question of… what is really in our food?
There is a clause in the rules and regulation that states that if the company makes a claim about the product, like high in vitamin C or something similar, that product is no longer exempt and business must put nutrition facts on the packaging.
We all need to stay informed about what we are eating and the nutrition is a big part of that. If the nutrition facts are missing, take that extra step to ask the necessary questions so that you are informed about what you are really eating. You don’t want to dive into a dish blind, get informed.
*This information was found on the US FDA website. Visit their website for more information about nutrition facts.
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