WASHINGTON — Food and beverage manufacturers have more time to comply with a new Nutrition Facts Label after the Food and Drug Administration on May 3 finalized a rule to extend deadlines.
Manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales now have until Jan. 1, 2020, to come into compliance. The previous compliance date was July 26 of this year. Manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales have until Jan. 1, 2021, which compared to a previous compliance date of July 26, 2019.
“This extension on the Nutrition Facts Label regulation will help ensure that we provide the food industry with guidance to help them modernize their Nutrition Facts labels and that industry has sufficient time to complete and print updated Nutrition Facts labels,” said Scott Gottlieb, M.D., commissioner of the F.D.A. “It’s crucial that we provide clear expectations so that industry can meet them. It’s just as important for consumers to be able to effectively use the updated food labels, and we’re launching a major educational campaign for consumers to help them better understand the new nutrition information that they’ll be seeing in the marketplace.”
The F.D.A. in the May 27, 2016, issue of the Federal Register published its final rule on changes to the Nutrition Facts Label and gave the original compliance date. Some of the changes included a larger type size for calories, a mandatory declaration of added sugars, and a mandatory listing of vitamin D and potassium.
The F.D.A. in September 2017 proposed to extend the compliance dates to Jan. 1, 2020, for manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales and to Jan. 1, 2021, for manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales. The F.D.A. on May 3 of this year finalized that proposed rule.