Aug 23, 2018

By: Steven Harris, Director, Policy Development and Regulatory Compliance, Food Marketing Institute

Eating Well and Regulatory Trends I like to tell myself that I try to eat well when selecting my meal choices. In fact, most people identify with my perception of how I choose to eat, according to FMI’s latest research. FMI’s 2018 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends highlights that 91 percent of consumers expressed that they were very or somewhat satisfied with the way they ate in the past week. While many eaters have contrasting views on what exactly they mean when they “eat well,” food retailers across the country continue to implement new programs and abide by new standards that help the industry’s and consumers’ goals of promoting healthy eating. 

Labeling

Customers now have broader access to calorie information in foods sold in grocery stores. In May, all food retailers with 20 or more locations began providing calorie information for standard menu items throughout their stores. Grocers were required to comply with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) menu labeling regulation on May 7, but many retailers had already been providing this information for their customers in response to consumer demand.

In a similar area of labeling, food manufacturers are in the process of updating the current nutrition facts label on products across the grocery store. The new standards constructed by FDA will make both stylistic changes to the label, including increasing the font size for “calories,” as well as changes to nutrition attributes, such as the inclusion of “added sugars.” With the increase in demand for private brands, many food retailers serve as the manufacturers of their private label products and have been very involved throughout the process to update the nutrition label. As manufacturers continue to make these changes to their product labels and make available more nutrition information, consumers have more insights to help meet their goals of eating well. 

Transparency

For some consumers, eating well focuses more on a product’s ingredients than on its nutrition content. Over the years, the food industry has been more and more transparent about the types of ingredients being used in its products, the sustainability efforts associated with the life cycle of the product and the importance of responsible sourcing for both the product itself and the labor used to get the product on the shelf. FMI and our members have worked closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as it implements a national standard for foods that contain bioengineered (BE) ingredients. Our focus on transparency will provide our customers with the information that they seek in a clear and consistent manner across the country.

Over the next month or two, FMI and our members will be compiling comments in response to FDA’s Nutrition Innovation Strategy, which, among other things, seeks to modernize labeling claims, ingredient labels and standards of identity. FDA may also consider addressing the claim of “healthy,” which FMI’s research has established can have varying characteristics for different consumers. We look forward to working with our members for feedback to help craft the comments, the period for which FDA extendedthrough October 11 earlier this week.

Grocers listen to their customers first and foremost to ensure that the products offered and the information provided is consistent with the needs of its customers. Our industry works hard to comply with the many regulatory requirements of running a grocery store and does so to help provide its customers with safe, affordable and quality food every day.

Download U.S. Grocery Shopping Trends