Legislation introduced by Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R., Ill.) and Kurt Schrader (D., Ore.), the Accurate Labels Act, would provide clear, accurate and meaningful nutrition information to consumers by preventing companies from issuing inaccurate labels that mislead consumers.
The Accurate Labels Act would amend the Fair Packaging & Labeling Act to ensure that consumers continue to benefit from the nutritional and allergy information on packaging today. Kinzinger and Schrader introduced this legislation in June 2018, along with a Senate companion bill, and have introduced the bill again because confusion has increased.
“Oftentimes, due to various state laws, items are incorrectly labeled with warnings about harms that do not exist. This inaccuracy creates confusion and fear for the consumers, desensitizes the public from heeding serious warnings on health risks and imposes unnecessary and costly regulatory burdens for producers,” Kinzinger said.
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For example …. California requires warning labels on a variety of everyday products — even coffee was subjected to a [cancer] warning label — often without regard to the best science or real-world exposure rates.
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The Accurate Labels Act [establishes] science-based criteria for all additional state and local labeling requirements …. ensuring that covered product information is risk based.
