ADA comments on nutrition labeling formats

ADA supports the Gersin-designed Simplified Numerical/ Graphical and Numerical/Numerical label formats, with sodium content listed separately at the bottom, printed in large type for easy reading by older Americans. ADA suggests adding teaching sessions as another setting in which to measure effectiveness, and including nutrition educators and their students in the sample composition. ADA expects that eliminating the information "servings per container" will result in consumer confusion, and recommends an interview question to test this. The independent variables relating to quantity of useful information should be controlled for type and placement of desirable information on the label. Nutrition education is a vital part of providing useful nutrition information and should be highlighted in the implementation plan. We look forward to an ongoing exchange of ideas on this matter.