New nutritional quality index ready for next year

I've long been a critic of the "Nutrition Facts" labels used on all processed foods sold in the U.S. Too little information is given and the numbers are easily manipulated by manufacturers based on unrealistic proportions.

So, it's a major win to hear that a new system for scoring the nutritional value of foods is set to hit product labels in 2008. Not only will a label change allow consumers to make healthier choices, it will hopefully end ambiguity about what exactly is in all those foods. That is, is the new labeling is done correctly.

the new labeling system, called the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI), is set to be implemented sometime in 2008. It takes into account a number of factors and should be way more insightful that the bare minimum nutritional information used now on most foods.