The National Food Processors Association (NFPA) and other industry groups are urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to deny a consumer group's petition for additional food ingredient labeling requirements.
Filed in late July by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the petition calls for FDA to require companies to disclose the percentages of key ingredients in their products. CSPI legal affairs director Bruce Silverglade explained that the U.S. lags behind Australia, New Zealand, the 15-member European Union, and Thailand, which already require some form of percentage ingredient labeling. "European consumers can readily see that Campbell's chicken soup contains 6 percent chicken, while Heinz chicken soup contains only 2 percent chicken," he said. "It's ironic that those American companies deny the same information to Americans."