The first is a picture of three box tops from cereal. Each box has its own front of pack labeling scheme. The manufacturers chose to include six items instead of the three that are recommended by the Institute of Medicine(IOM). If the system was standardized, as I have previously explained, the cereals would look the same with different numbers (perhaps) in the scheme. I drew a box in the picture to give you an idea of what I am mean.
The next picture is one I snapped at the grocery store yesterday. It would qualify for my "outrageous" or "are you kidding" segment, if I had one. I believe that the product is meant to be similar to margarine or some type of butter spread. It contains 50 calories for 14 grams (this qualifies as a very small RACC - or reference amount customarily consumed). It would be considered an energy dense food. Recall that fruits and vegetables have ranges of 0.3 to 0.7 cals per gram and this item has 3.5 cals per gram. This product is also an example of something the IOM wanted to prevent when it came up with a front of pack labeling system. That would be the fortification of products so that they would get a point or some other kind of shout out when they really should not. That appears to be what this company is trying to do with the name of the product and the supplements they added. The truth is this. IF something is bad for you, adding something that is good for you does not change that! (for example fiber in your honey buns or soda). Also, the ingredient list on this product is pretty scary.
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