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FDA under pressure to re-examine serving portions on nutrition labels

08/03/11

A recent article published by The New York Times highlights the growing criticism that food producers receive regarding serving sizes. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received numerous requests over the years to force food makers to change serving portion information on nutritional labels into more realistic amounts.

The article highlights some of the most notable discrepancies between listed serving sizes and what the average person actually consumes. For example, a single serving of Campbell's Chunky Classic Chicken Noodle soup is less than half a can, but a national survey found that only 10 percent of people would actually only eat the one cup portion. Sixty-four percent said they would eat an entire can at a time, taking in 1,840 milligrams of sodium, about 80 percent of the daily recommended salt intake in one sitting.

The serving portion sizes listed on food products are regulated by the FDA and follow what an average person would supposedly consume in one sitting. The Times article notes that critics assert that these amounts are "often laughably small because they're based in part on surveys of eating behavior that were carried out in the 1970s."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that most Americans should consume 1,500 mg of sodium a day, a change which could possibly reduce the number of life insurance claims based on people who lose their lives to illnesses like heart disease and stroke.

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