Food: Truth In Peanut Butter

Pity the weight-conscious health nut who craves a peanut butter sandwich: Skippy peanut butter claims to have "less sugar than other leading national brands," then fails to list how much it has. Wonder Light white bread trumpets "no cholesterol," but few breads these days have cholesterol, not even Taystee Butter Top wheat bread or Thomas' English muffins -- and neither of them makes such claims. And how can Colombo Nonfat Lite Yoghurt be nonfat when its label lists "less than 1 g" fat?

For years food manufacturers have massaged the truth on their labels in order to appeal to health-conscious shoppers. And for years consumer groups have fought for stricter labeling rules and closer monitoring of the products that claim to have special health benefits. At last someone in Washington seems to be listening. Condemning the "Tower of Babel" in the nation's grocery stores, Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan last week proposed tough new regulations that would require manufacturers to provide precise details on fat, fiber, cholesterol and other nutritional contents of their foods. Said Sullivan: "Some food labels are hard to read and understand, and frankly some unfounded health claims are being made in the marketplace. It's a real mess."

Under the new guidelines, the Food and Drug Administration would also standardize definitions for such terms as "low fat" and "high fiber," which are currently used at the discretion of the manufacturer. If Sullivan's reforms are adopted, virtually every label (totaling some 20,000 in the typical supermarket) will have to be changed to meet the new standards.