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The Conversation
The Conversation
Xaq Frohlich, Associate Professor of History of Technology, Auburn University

Nutrition Facts labels have a complicated legacy – a historian explains the science and politics of translating food into information

The Nutrition Facts label is designed to meet shifting dietary trends and public health goals. NoDerog/iStock via Getty Images Plus

The Nutrition Facts label, that black and white information box found on nearly every packaged food product in the U.S. since 1994, has recently become an icon for consumer transparency.

From Apple’s “Privacy Nutrition Labels” that disclose how smartphone apps handle user data, to a “Garment Facts” label that standardizes ethical disclosures on clothing, policy advocates across industries invoke “Nutrition Facts” as a model for empowering consumers and enabling socially responsible markets. They argue that intuitive information fixes could solve a wide range of market-driven social ills.

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