It is mandatory for the manufacturer to make an affirmative claim as to the cholesterol and trans fat content (along with several other items) of every food product sold in the US. The manufacturer is only liable for what they actually claim; this labeling standard forces them to make certain claims.
With the labeling you describe of the EU, I could look at every item in my pantry and refrigerator, and not realize that my diet is entirely missing any source of vitamin D, for example. If nothing in any of my labels even mentions vitamin D, I might not even realize it is something I should be looking for in my diet.
When every single item in my diet affirmatively claims “Not a significant source of vitamin D”, it’s a big clue that I’m not eating right.
There is a distinct difference in liability between “accidentally” forgetting to include the sodium content of a product, and affirmatively claiming it has no significant amount of sodium.
When I’m on a low sodium diet and a soy sauce manufacturer fails to list its sodium content on the label, I bear a large part of the responsibility. It is common knowledge that soy sauce is usually extremely high in salt, so I can’t reasonably claim their mislabeling was the cause of any harm I experience. But, if they were to affirmatively claim “not a significant source of sodium”, I’ll own their asses.
Mandating claims of these specific, important nutrients certainly does add meaningful information.
You can’t get sufficient vitamin D from eating a normal healthy varied diet.
So if you want to be sure, and don’t live a place where the sun gets above 45° year round, you need to take it as a supplement.
It’s ridiculous to read labels to see if you get enough of all vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and amino acids. That’s insane.
Insanity is expecting the system to work in a way other than the way it actually works.
By the way, I did discover that EU labeling does include a “% RI” for sugar, which is functionality identical to the “recommendation” you were complaining about as being illegal.
It is mandatory for the manufacturer to make an affirmative claim as to the cholesterol and trans fat content (along with several other items) of every food product sold in the US. The manufacturer is only liable for what they actually claim; this labeling standard forces them to make certain claims.
With the labeling you describe of the EU, I could look at every item in my pantry and refrigerator, and not realize that my diet is entirely missing any source of vitamin D, for example. If nothing in any of my labels even mentions vitamin D, I might not even realize it is something I should be looking for in my diet.
When every single item in my diet affirmatively claims “Not a significant source of vitamin D”, it’s a big clue that I’m not eating right.
There is a distinct difference in liability between “accidentally” forgetting to include the sodium content of a product, and affirmatively claiming it has no significant amount of sodium.
When I’m on a low sodium diet and a soy sauce manufacturer fails to list its sodium content on the label, I bear a large part of the responsibility. It is common knowledge that soy sauce is usually extremely high in salt, so I can’t reasonably claim their mislabeling was the cause of any harm I experience. But, if they were to affirmatively claim “not a significant source of sodium”, I’ll own their asses.
Mandating claims of these specific, important nutrients certainly does add meaningful information.
You can’t get sufficient vitamin D from eating a normal healthy varied diet.
So if you want to be sure, and don’t live a place where the sun gets above 45° year round, you need to take it as a supplement.
It’s ridiculous to read labels to see if you get enough of all vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and amino acids. That’s insane.
Insanity is expecting the system to work in a way other than the way it actually works.
By the way, I did discover that EU labeling does include a “% RI” for sugar, which is functionality identical to the “recommendation” you were complaining about as being illegal.