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The terminal time you lot scooped some ice cream for dessert, did you lot limit yourself to half a loving cup? If you took more—you're correct in step with about people these days.

Likewise with a soft drink: Do you beverage 8 ounces, 12 ounces, or even the whole xx-ounce bottle?

Ice cream and soft drinks are just two food products that take been affected by changes in serving size requirements that are included in the new Nutrition Facts label. The goal: to bring serving sizes closer to what people really eat so that when they look at calories and nutrients on the label, these numbers more closely lucifer what they are consuming.

The serving sizes listed on the Nutrition Facts label are not recommended serving sizes. By law, serving sizes must be based on how much nutrient people actually consume, and not on what they should eat.

Jillonne Kevala, Ph.D., supervisory chemist at the U.Due south. Nutrient and Drug Assistants (FDA), says, "The fact is, for many foods, we're eating larger portions than we used to. And the changes to the Diet Facts label reverberate that."

In 1993, when FDA created the Diet Facts label, the standards used to determine serving sizes—chosen the Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed (RACCs)—were based primarily on surveys of food consumption conducted in 1977-1978 and 1987-1988. The 1993 RACCs have since been used past manufacturers to calculate the serving sizes on their packages.

"We now have much more contempo food consumption data, and information technology showed us that some serving sizes on food labels should alter," says Douglas Balentine, Ph.D., the director of FDA'south Role of Diet and Nutrient Labeling. For instance, serving sizes for muffins accept changed. People generally consume an entire muffin, and not a half or a third.

In some cases, the reference amounts used to set serving sizes are smaller. Today's individually packaged yogurts more often come in 6-ounce containers, versus the previous 8-ounce ones. FDA is at present using a 6-ounce reference corporeality for yogurt.

Merely the serving size for ice cream has gotten a petty larger. Instead of a half of a cup, it's now two-thirds of a cup.

Changes Based on Package Size

FDA has besides changed the criteria for labeling based on bundle size, as "we know that package size affects what people eat," says Balentine.

With the new requirements, more nutrient products previously labeled equally more than than one serving are now required to be labeled as merely i serving. Why? Because people are more likely to eat or drink them in one sitting. Examples include a twenty-ounce can of soda, and a 15-ounce can of soup.

And sure larger packages that may exist consumed either in 1 sitting or more one sitting—depending on your appetite and inclination—must now be labeled both per serving and per package. This dual-column format is required if a bundle contains at least two times the reference amount customarily consumed (on which the serving size is based) and less than or equal to 3 times the reference amount. Some examples are a 19-ounce tin can of soup and 3-ounce bag of chips.

Currently, manufacturers are only required to provide the calorie and food information per serving, and you have to do the math if you're eating the whole container. So if you have a hankering for some chips and eat an entire package, now you'll have easier access to information most what you're consuming.

For packages that are clearly larger than most people would eat in ane sitting—i that has more than three servings—the dual cavalcade is not required. Manufacturers are just required in these cases to characterization these products per serving. Examples include a "party size" purse of chips or a two-liter canteen of soda.

"Nosotros hope that updating the characterization in these ways makes it easier for people to be more realistic about the number of calories and nutrients they're actually consuming and to make healthier choices when choosing foods for themselves and their families," says Balentine.