Sara Lee Corporation announced late last week that it plans a sodium reduction in many of its products over the course of the next five years. The reduction is in “key categories” of fresh bread, hot dogs, lunchmeat, breakfast foods and cooked sausage. Brands included in the initiative are  Jimmy Dean, Ball Park, Hillshire Farm, and Sara Lee.

What you need to know:

This is good news. Sort of.

It would have been better if the reduction would become effective immediately and not planned for such a long term. Right now the press release is more about marketing than nutrition. Sara Lee would gain much more credibility if it announced the reductions as they were being executed, not in advance.

We Americans are consuming way too much salt in our diet.While the daily maximum is 2300 mg of sodium (5 grams of salt, the equivalent of a teaspoon) the average consumption is over 3,500 mg. Excess salt intake results in high blood pressure, hypertension and additional health risks.

over 70% of the salt we consume comes from processed foods. In many cases, the sodium comes in surprising places. Bread products, Cereals, and even sweet snacks contain high levels of salt.

Take Sara Lee’s Plain Bagel. It contains 590 mg of sodium – more than 25% of the recommended daily maximum. And this is before the lox, eggs, or cheeses!

What to do at the supermarket:

We could all do with less sodium. Look at products’ nutrition facts panel where sodium content is mandated both in milligrams and percent of daily value. Grains will always contain some levels of salt but choose those with lower numbers. Many manufacturers are reformulating their products to reduce sodium levels, so it makes sense to compare similar products and choose the one with the lowest count.

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Sara Lee is the number one fresh bread manufacturer in the US, so there’s a good chance you’ll find some of their loaves in your local supermarket. We wanted to take a look at a product that caught our eye due to it’s somewhat oxymoronous name – how could a white bread be whole grain? Isn’t whole grain bread supposed to be, well, not white?

Ah the wonders of food science and marketing.

The company boasts, on the package, albeit in small print: Made with whole grain. 30% whole grain (This product provides 10 g of whole grain in a 2 slice serving. USDA recommends consuming 48 g of whole grain every day.).

What’s really inside?… Read more…

The long weekend marks the beginning of this year’s barbecue season, and if you’re like most Americans, there will surely be some form of frankfurter sizzling away on your grill.

Hot Dogs are a big business (billions of dollars a year), and as the weather heats up, so do the marketing battles between the market players.

As food companies like to sue each other every once in while in turf wars, how timely it is to read about a weiner war, with Kraft’s Oscar Meyer Brand getting sued by Sara Lee (Ball Park brand) over “We are tastier” claims.

From a nutritional standpoint, the products are very similar, and sadly, very poor in nutritional value.  Read more…

flickr photo: Edgar Zuniga Jr.

1. A bagel starts its  life as a ring shaped doughy ball, roughly hand-sized. It is boiled for a short time in water, and only then  baked.

2. A trademark of bagels is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned exterior.

3. Bagels are often topped with seeds baked on the outer crust, with the traditional ones being poppy or sesame seeds. Some also may have salt sprinkled on their surface, and there are also a number of different dough types such as whole-grain or rye.

4. The bagel was invented in Poland sometime in the 17th century. In the late 19th century, the bagel immigrated to the US along with Eastern European Jews, and New York became the bagel capital of the world.

5. The hole in the middle of the bagel was a practical solution to the need of European street vendors to loop bagels on a pole or string.

6. The US bagel market today is a $600 million industry, or about 5% of the $13 billion bread industry. Leading brand are Thomas’ (40% market share), Sara-Lee (15%), Lenders, and private label store brands.

7. The top three bagel variations are plain, everything (lots of seed variations) , and cinnamon raisin.

8. Unfortunately, bagels are not a very nutritious bread form. Made with processed wheat and containing 25% of the recommended daily sodium intake, a single bagel holds 290 calories.

9. As a result, whole wheat bagels have become very popular in the last few years. So have mini-bagels and 100 calorie bagels. Fortification with various vitamins and minerals is also trendy as of late.

10. Despite the disappointing nutritional attributes of the bagel, we find it irresistible on Sunday mornings, when, freshly baked and spread with cream cheese and lox, every bite is heaven.

What to do at the supermarket:

If buying frozen bagels, check the nutrition panel for the serving size and make sure the data refers to a whole bagel and not a slice (which is half a bagel). Choose the smaller bagels (around 3-4 oz, not 5oz). Whole wheat bagels are a better option because of the added fiber, but calorically they are similar to the processed flour bagels.

If buying fresh, ask the bakery for nutrition information before committing yourself to a dozen.

Instead of cream cheese, try avocado, tuna, or just eat plain, freshly baked.

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The new year has ushered in a blizzard of new food labeling systems aimed at helping consumers make healthier choices at the supermarket. This week it is Supervalu, which kicked off nutritionIQ at its California Albertsons stores.

The color-coded, easy-to-spot shelf tags, or cards, are supposed to aid shoppers in choosing low fat, high fiber and other good foods. From the SuperValu press release:

The program covers 11 different nutrient claims in seven categories with the shelf tags color-coded as follows:
• excellent or good source of fiber are denoted by orange tags,
• excellent or good source of calcium by blue tags,
• excellent or good source of protein by yellow tags,
• low or healthier level of sodium by dark green tags,
• low calorie by a purple tag,
• low saturated fat by a red tag and
• whole grains by a dark orange tag.

read the full press release…

It seems that in the last few months, simplifying food labels has become a must for all grocery chains and manufacturers. NuVal, GDA, Nutritional Spotlight, and Smart Choices are recent examples. For more details, read our history of product nutrition labeling. While easy to understand nutrition information is to be commended, consumers may become befuddled by the tower of nutritional babel.

The new system has been developed in cooperation with Joslin Clinic, part of an academic medical center affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

What you need to know:

Supervalu should be commended for taking this first step, showcasing the more nutritious foods in the supermarket. But will they also place signs on foods that are really not nutritious? Don’t hold your breath.

As a supermarket that needs to sell more, not less products, don’t expect Albertson’s to post NutritionIQ signage with negative nutritional information. In fact, Supervalu does not even plan to apply the benchmarks to snacks or beverages, where there is no chance to find nutrition.

What to do at the supermarket:

Although nutritionIQ tags simplify things for shoppers, always check the nutrition label as well to learn about the nutrients to limit. Many times low-fat means high in sugar. But the tag won’t necessarily tell you that.

In general, it’s best to select products with short ingredient lists. Unprocessed foods are easy to find at the supermarket. Just stick to the perimeter of the store, where you will find fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy and low fat cuts of meat.

Don’t be let simplifications created by the supermarket or a munufacturer catch you off guard. Remember, they want you to buy more, not less.

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It’s  unclear if  New Year weight loss resolutions are the reason, but for the second time in a week, a new front of package nutrition information label has been introduced.

Sara Lee joins the Food Label frenzy and has introduced Nutritional Spotlight. You can download their press release here [PDF]. The system, which is similar to the European GDA labeling, will initially appear on Sara Lee bread, bun, and bagel products. Similar labeling efforts were introduced by Kellogg’s and Mars late last year. The label simplification movement has shifted to high gear in the past few months with the introduction of  pan industry initiatives such as Smart Choices and NuVal. For more details, read our history of product nutrition labeling.

What you need to know:

While the underlying logic of simplyfing the nutrition labels is to be commended, this is a marketing play by Sara Lee, which will most definitely spotlight the positive nutrients in its products, not the negative ones.

What to do at the supermarket:

Choose products that don’t have a long ingredient list. Unprocessed foods are easy to find at the supermarket. Just stick to the perimeter of the stor, where you will find fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy and low fat cuts of meat.

Don’t be fooled by Nutritional Spotlights or other front of label nutrition simplifications created by specific food manufacturers because they are just an another arrow in their quiver of marketing messages.

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Updated: October  2009. Original version published in November 2008.

In the early 13th century, the king of England proclaimed the first food regulatory law, the Assize of Bread, which prohibited bakers from mixing ground peas and beans into bread dough. Ever since, it has been a cat and mouse game between the food industry and the public (fast forward to China 2008 – cheap poisonous melamine in milk powder). In the US, food regulation dates back to early colonial times. Here is a brief overview of the last 150 years of government and industry food regulation:

1862 President Lincoln launches the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Chemistry, the predecessor of the Food and Drug Administration.

1906 The original Food and Drugs Act is passed. It prohibits interstate commerce in mis-branded and adulterated foods, drinks and drugs.

1906 In the aftermath of “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, which detailed the horrendous sanitary and working conditions in the meatpacking industry, the Meat Inspection Act is passed.

1924 The Supreme Court rules that the Food and Drugs Act condemns every statement, design, or device on a product’s label that may mislead or deceive, even if technically true.

1938 A revised and expanded Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FDC) Act of 1938 is passed. Highlights include: safe tolerances to be set for unavoidable poisonous substances, standards of identity, quality, and fill-of-container to be set for foods, and authorization of factory inspections.

1939 First Food Standards issued (for canned tomatoes, tomato purée, and tomato paste).

1949 FDA publishes guidance to industry for the first time, called “Procedures for the Appraisal of the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food,” (aka the “black book”)

1950 Oleomargarine Act requires prominent labeling of colored oleomargarine, to distinguish it from butter. (Yes, swindlers tried to sell folks cheap margarine in the guise of butter.)

1958 Food Additives Amendment enacted, requiring manufacturers of new food additives to establish safety. Going forward, manufacturers were required to declare all additives in a product.

1958 FDA publishes the first list of food substances generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

1962 President Kennedy proclaims the Consumer Bill of Rights. Included are the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard.

1965 Fair Packaging and Labeling Act requires all consumer products in interstate commerce to be honestly and informatively labeled, including food.

1971 Artificial sweetener saccharin, included in FDA’s original GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list, is removed from the list pending new scientific study.

1973 California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) is formed. Begins with 54 farmers mutually certifying each other’s adherence to its own published, publicly available standards for defining organic produce.

1977 Bowing to industry pressure, the Saccharin Study and Labeling Act is passed by Congress to stop the FDA from banning the chemical sweetener. The act does require a label warning that saccharin has been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

1980 Infant Formula Act establishes special FDA controls to ensure necessary nutritional content and safety.

1980 The USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) publishes the 1980 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines are to be updated every 5 years. In 1980 there were 7 relatively simple guidelines. In the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, there were 41 recommendations in a 71 page booklet!!!

1982 FDA publishes first “red book” (successor to 1949 “black book”), officially known as “Toxicological Principles for the Safety Assessment of Direct Food Additives and Color Additives Used in Food”.

1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) is passed.  It requires all packaged foods to bear nutrition labeling and all health claims for foods to be consistent with terms defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. As a concession to food manufacturers, the FDA authorizes some health claims for foods. The food ingredient panel, serving sizes, and terms such as “low fat” and “light” are standardized. This is pretty much the nutrition label as we know it today.

1991 Nutrition facts, basic per-serving nutritional information, are required on foods under the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. Food labels are to list the most important nutrients in an easy-to-follow format.

1995 Saccharin Notice Repeal Act repeals the saccharin notice requirements of 1977. People can get their saccharin without having to read about its risks.

1995 American Heart Association initiates a food certification program including AHA’s Heart Check Symbol to appear on certain foods.  Criteria is simple – low in saturated fat and cholesterol for healthy people over age 2. Oh and also, a certification payment to AHA by the food manufacturer. Now you know why sugary cereal is Heart Checked.

1998 Transfair, the US Fair Trade organization is established, with a mission “to build a more equitable and sustainable model of international trade that benefits producers, consumers, industry and the earth”.

2002 The 2002 Farm Bill requires retailers provide country-of-origin (COOL) labeling for fresh beef, pork, and lamb. After repeated debilitation and stakeholder pressures, the law would finally go into effect only 6 years later, on Oct 1, 2008, and even then with many loopholes.

2002 The National Organic Program (NOP),  enacted. It restricts the use of the term “organic” to certified organic producers. Certification is handled by state, non-profit and private agencies that have been approved by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

2003 Announcement made that FDA will require food labels to include trans fat content. Labeling went into effect in 2006.

2003 The FDA announced plans to permit the manufacturers of food products sold in the United States to make health claims on food labels which are supported by less than conclusive evidence. From “significant scientific consensus” before a claim can be made, industry can now rely on “Some scientific evidence” or “Very limited and preliminary scientific research” to make a health claim. Opponents criticize it as opening the door to ill-founded claims. Advocates believe it will make more information available to the public.

2004 Passage of the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. Requires labeling of any food that contains one or more of: peanuts, soybeans, cow’s milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, and wheat.

2004 PepsiCo launches Smartspot – designating the “more nutritious” of its products with an easy to spot symbol on the front of package. Baked Doritos in. Fried Doritos out.

2005 Kraft launches Sensible Solutions, a similar initiative for its gamut of products including sugar-free Jello, vitamin water, and Nabisco toasted chips.

2005 President’s Choice launches Blue Menu to designate its healthier products.

2006 Hannaford Brothers Supermarket Chain launches Guiding Stars intended to help customers choose healthy foods. Foods are ranked 0 to 3 stars, with three stars awarded to most nutritious foods. Only 20% of the supermarket stocked items are starred, but sales of these items increase by several percentage points.

Sept 2008 NuVal announced – The nutritional value (NuVal) System scores food on a scale of 1 to 100. The higher the NuVal Score, the higher the nutrition of a food product. The score is based on a complex and *top secret* Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI) that takes into account 30 different nutrients in food. [update: read review]

Oct 2007 Kellogg’s Launches Nutrition at a Glance based on the European Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) system. Front of Package information includes daily percentage values for 6 nutrients: calories, total fat, sodium, sugars, vitamin A, and vitamin C.

Oct 2008 Mars International launches GDA labeling of its foods and snacks in the US.

Oct 2008 Smart Choices launched – a pan industry effort to promote a standardized benchmark for front of package consumer information. Initial supporters include General Mills, Con-Agra, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Unilever. [update: read review]

January 2009 Healthy Ideas launched at Giant Foods and  Stop & Shop supermarkets. Around 10% of the items qualify for this benchmark, developed by the grocers’ nutrition experts and based on FDA and USDA guidelines.

January 2009 Sara Lee introduces Nutritional Spotlight front of package labels for bread, bun, and bagel products. This move is in contrast to an industry wide attempt by manufacturers to create a unified Smart Choice label. This label is similar to Mars’ and Kelloggs’ recent efforts.

January 2009 SuperValu introduces nutritionIQ shelf signage at its Albertsons stores. The color-coded, easy-to-spot shelf tags, or cards, are supposed to aid shoppers in choosing low fat, high fiber and other good foods.

January 2009 Regional Grocery Chain, United Supermarkets, Introduces TAG Nutrition Labeling Program. Five color coded shelf labels point to Heart Healthy/Diabetes Management, Gluten-Free, Organic, Lean/Low-Fat for Meat and Dairy and Sugar-Free/Reduced Sugar products.

June 2009 – SuperValu introduces Healthy Elements program for its independent retail partners.

Summer 2009 – Smart Choices launches formally with several hundreds of products labeled with the green check mark. Froot Loops becomes the poster child for everything wrong with an industry backed nutrition rating system.

October 2009 – The FDA sends a “Dear Manufacturer” letter to boards of the Smart Choices Program and other Front of Pack nutrition rating systems, stating its concern with the potential to mislead consumers. A week later the Smart Choices program suspends itself.
What’s next for food labels? Consumers interest groups will continue to demand more visibility and more information from manufacturers. More data will become available, but translating the wealth of information to a decision at the supermarket shelf will not necessarily become easier for consumers. Programs such as Guiding Stars and NuVal may help consumers make better decisions, but with the FDA’s renewed interest and vigor, perhaps we shall see a uniform, standardized format on all products in the not too distant future.

Visionaries see a day where each ingredient of every product on a shelf can be connected directly to the farm, factory, and other stakeholders involved in its processing. Now how do you fit all that information on a pack of gum?

Sources: FDA, USDA, AHA, company and organization websites

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