Why we need front-of-package labeling

US adults consume 50 percent more sodium, 40 percent more added sugars, and 30 percent more saturated fat per day than the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend, contributing to preventable chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Our packaged food supply is far too high in these harmful nutrients.

Nutrition Facts labels are important tools for helping people select healthy foods and limiting less healthy foods, and display a % Daily Value to convey how a particular food can fit into our total daily diet. However, only 63 percent of adults understand how to interpret the % Daily Value and only 57 percent know how to tell when a food is “High” in a nutrient, with lower rates among those with less education. 

FOPNL will help make nutrition information more accessible for all consumers. Studies show that FOPNL can result in healthier food purchases and can prompt manufacturers to offer healthier foods, resulting in a healthier food supply.

The current status of front-of-package labeling in the United States

In January 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a proposed rule for a mandatory, interpretive, front-of-package labeling system. This is a big step forward for FOPNL, but we won't see these labels start to appear on packages just yet. Before FDA finalizes the rule, the public has an opportunity to submit comments, which will inform the final rule’s development. Once the FDA issues a final rule, we will know exactly what the new US labels will look like and by when they will appear in stores. Companies will have 3-4 years (based on company size) after publication of the final rule to fully comply.

Which front-of-package labeling scheme has FDA proposed?

FDA has proposed mandating an interpretive front-of-package “Nutrition Info box” label design in its proposed rule. This label shows the product’s percent daily value (% DV) for saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars and indicates if the product is “low,” “medium,” or “high” in each nutrient based on the % DV. For the purposes of this label, FDA is proposing % DV cutoffs of 5% or less for “low,” 6%-19% for “medium,” and 20% or more for “high.” If the rule is finalized in its current form, the label would be required to appear prominently in black and white on all FDA-regulated products with the exceptions of foods in very small packages and foods for children under the age of 4. A smaller alternative Nutrition Info box that does not include % DV would be allowed on certain smaller packages.

Before releasing the proposed rule, FDA conducted consumer research testing eight potential FOPNL designs that fell into three broad categories:

1. Guideline Daily Amount labels that highlight quantitative information from the Nutrition Facts label and are modeled after industry’s Facts Up Front voluntary labeling system
2. Nutrition Info labels that rate levels of nutrients as High, Medium, or Low (FDA’s proposed rule would require a label that falls into this category)
3. High In labels that only identify products with high levels of specific nutrients and are very similar to labels recently adopted in Canada and Brazil, as well as across Latin America.

What the evidence says about which front-of-package labeling scheme is best

One of the ultimate goals of front-of-package labeling policies is to change behavior: to help consumers choose and eat healthier foods. Of the three FOPNL categories that FDA considered (Guideline Daily Amount, Nutrition Info, and High In), current evidence best supports the High In scheme’s ability to change consumer behavior.

The Nutrition Info box that FDA is proposing is most similar to traffic light-style labels, while the High In scheme FDA previously proposed is most similar to nutrient warning-style labels. Both label styles have been tested in extensive experimental research, and implemented in other countries.

A 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies comparing nutrient warnings and traffic light labels found that nutrient warnings were more effective for most outcomes related to improved nutritional quality of food purchases. Real-world evidence confirms that nutrient warnings lead to healthier food purchases, whereas traffic light labels have shown less promise.

FDA also considered the Guideline Daily Amount scheme, which is the least promising. Studies consistently show that these types of labels are less effective at encouraging selection or purchase of healthier choices and improving consumers’ ability to accurately compare the healthfulness of different foods compared to other FOPNL schemes. These findings are not surprising, because Guideline Daily Amount labels rely on consumer understanding of the % Daily Value, which is low.

In making its decision about which label to propose, FDA notably did not consider any scientific evidence related to behavior change (e.g., which label increased selection of healthier foods), due to concerns around legal authority. Instead, FDA only considered evidence related to whether consumers could use the labels to identify how different foods can be part of a healthy diet, and designed its own study to test these outcomes. FDA based its design selection on the findings of its own study, which tested various styles of labels and found that the Nutrition Info box generally performed best when participants were asked to quickly identify the most and least healthy nutrient profiles and answer questions about the levels of sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar in products. While typical traffic light-style labels include color, FDA’s study found that black and white labels performed the best when compared to color versions. Because the FDA study only evaluated participants' understanding of the information provided, and not their purchases or consumption, FDA should consider the growing body of international evidence supporting the “High In”-style labels when finalizing the rule.

Other countries already require front-of-package labeling

As of February 2025, 17 countries have already passed mandatory FOPNL policies and many more have policies under development. The Global Food Research Program at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill maintains and regularly updates a global front-of-package labeling map.