There’s a new label in town: “Smart Choices.” It’s an industry-sponsored label that will be printed on a range of food packaging to signify, basically, that someone who can print labels thinks it’s a healthy food. The label isn’t an FDA program, and seems to be run mainly by food companies. The American Dietetic Association and the American Diabetic Association have already abandoned Smart Choices, and we’re pretty sure that was a smart choice for them. So far, sugary breakfast cereals like Lucky Charms and Frosted Flakes have gotten the Smart Choices stamp of approval. So if sugar-packed cereals like Frosted Flakes can get the label, how exactly does a food qualify? Well, that’s pretty… unclear. Foods “cannot exceed ‘nutrients to limit,'” and “must include one or more ‘nutrients to encourage,'” but that’s about as specific as the program seems to get.
So what we’re going to do, and what everyone out there on the internet should do, is sign CREDO’s petition to make sure the Smart Choices label means something more than that the food’s manufacturers want you to buy it without checking the ingredients.
