Final answer:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates nutrition facts labels on packaged foods in the U.S., ensuring they display nutrient content and ingredients which helps consumers make healthy choices.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates nutrition facts labels and ingredient listing on packaged foods. According to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, this ensures the purity, effectiveness, and truthful labeling of food items. Food labels are required to list nutrient content and the ingredients of foods which helps consumers make informed choices about the foods they consume.
The label must display information such as calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, and certain vitamins and minerals. In addition, if a nutrient has been added to a product, like a vitamin-enriched beverage, the nutritional information must indicate which vitamins have been included.
Furthermore, the FDA's regulatory programs supervise various aspects of food safety, including labeling accuracy. By enforcing these label requirements, the FDA plays a crucial role in helping individuals choose foods that are high in necessary nutrients and low in those that should be consumed in smaller amounts, like sodium and sugar.