ROCKVILLE, Md. -- David Kessler, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, is bouncing through the aisles of a Giant grocery store, approaching customers and giving them a crash course on the new food label.
Right now, he's in the salad dressing aisle where he's cornered Polly Long.
"Do you have a minute? Would you like to learn how to use the new food label? It'll just take a minute."
He starts rooting through her cart. Together they look at the Nutrition Facts panels - labels that will be required on thousands of grocery items by next Sunday. They discover the bread that Long selected has no fiber, the cheese she has picked is very high in fat, ditto the milk.
"I need to go empty my grocery cart," she laughs. "I'm feeding my kids high-fat foods."
No, you don't, he reassures. "Here's your low-fat yogurt. Total fat: 5%. Is it low? Yes, it's low."
Then he dashes off to get more milk to show her the fat difference between skim milk, 2% milk and whole milk.
Someone stop that man.
Kessler, who ordinarily goes to the grocery store only on "special runs," has made this trip to stir up media attention.
And who can blame him? After years of hard work by the government, industry and consumer groups, and an estimated cost of $ 1 billion to $ 1.5 billion to food companies, Kessler wants to make sure shoppers use the new labels.
Many foods already have them, but Sunday is the deadline: Almost all processed foods manufactured after that must have the new Nutrition Facts panel or risk FDA action. Some old labels will be around until product supplies are used up.
The panel lists key nutrients, including fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium in grams or milligrams. It also shows how the nutrient fits into a daily diet.
The labeling is mandatory for most foods - including processed meats - but voluntary at fresh produce and seafood counters. It's also voluntary for single-ingredient meat and poultry products, regulated by the Department of Agriculture.
At a news conference today, Kessler will launch a public education campaign and unveil two new public service announcements for television.
One stars Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota Twins and Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox. Clemens pitches a ball to Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services. She says: "For a healthier diet, use the new food label. Check it out."
A similar message will be flashed on Major League stadium scoreboards and the electronic message boards on the Goodyear blimps and in New York City's Times Square.
And Curious George, the lively monkey character in children's books, will be the mascot for material aimed at kids.
Plenty of people applaud the new labels.
It's a "public health milestone," says Bruce Silverglade of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a leading crusaders for label reform. CSPI would like more improvements.
Kessler admits fine-tuning is necessary, especially with serving sizes. But he thinks the new rules are an important step to help consumers figure out what they're really eating.
In addition to panel requirement, the government set up:
Strict definitions for descriptive terms used on the front of products such as "fat free," "low-fat" and "reduced calorie."
Limits on health claims. Only seven different ones are permitted - including that calcium reduces risk of osteoporosis and a high-fiber, low-fat diet reduces risk of some cancers.
But the Nutrition Facts panel is Kessler's crusade of the day. The latest dietary information has been condensed into a few square inches, he says. A major key to using it is understanding a new term that's used on the panel: "percent daily value."
"What daily value really means is your daily allotment" of that nutrient, Kessler says.
For instance, if the daily value for the fat in a serving of a product is 35%, then it provides 35% of your total fat for a day.
Shoppers can use the percent daily value to compare products or to figure out how the food fits into that day's diet.
"Kids get this in a second. Kids understand these numbers," says Kessler. "They understand when I say to them 20% of your fat for the day is in one of those servings."
Kessler continues his race through the store. In front of the snack shelves he points out that the serving size of potato chips is now given in number of chips, not just ounces; in the lunch meat aisle, he compares saturated fat in different packages.
He stops grocery shoppers Phyllis and Albert Schindler.
"Most people don't understand milligrams and grams. If I asked you - 8 grams of saturated fat - would you know if that was a lot or a little?"
"I wouldn't be absolutely sure," says Phyllis Schindler.
"Let me show you. Go to the percent daily value column and see what this product has in one serving. One serving of this has 38% of your daily allotment. Is that high or low?"
It's high, says Albert.
Which is easier - looking at grams or looking at percent of fat? Kessler quizzes.
Looking at the percent, Albert answers.
Yes, Kessler says. Here's a simple rule: "Less than 5% of your daily value in a product is low."
All the daily values are based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, but not everyone eats that amount. "You may eat 1,900 calories, and I may eat 2,300 calories," says Kessler, "but you get a ballpark" percentage on the package.
If you're more interested in counting fat grams, that's fine. "If a person still wants to know the grams, that's still in the label," he says. "There's a lot of information. There's something on that label for everybody."
To make sure that all the information on packages is correct, the FDA is doing lab analysis on hundreds of products.
But after all this, will shoppers really use the new label?
Kessler is optimistic. In 1990, about 30% of people decided whether to buy a product based on the nutrition information panel. A new FDA survey two months ago showed 55% of customers made their decision based on the Nutrition Facts panel. And that's before the education campaign began, says Kessler.
Regina Hildwine of the National Food Processors Association takes a wait-and-see approach.
If consumers don't understand the new label over time, she says, the FDA will have to "give it some serious reconsideration. But a lot of people have and will continue to expend a lot of energy to make sure consumers 'get it.' "
And Kessler is one of them. He's racing to the ice cream aisle: "Look at the difference," he says, clutching two frozen packages. "Eight percent saturated fat on a triple brownie yogurt and 50% on premium vanilla ice cream . . ."
