“The Food and Drug Administration is encouraging restaurants to voluntarily include added sugars in the nutritional information on menus. In draft guidance issued Wednesday, the agency said when it finalized the menu labeling rule in 2014, the additional written nutrition information was aligned with the nutrition information required in the Nutrition Facts Label. In 2016, FDA amended the Nutrition Facts Label to include “added sugars” as a required nutrient but didn’t insert added sugars in the menu labeling requirements. “Including the amount of added sugars for standard menu items could help consumers meet current dietary recommendations,” the draft guidance says. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting calories from added sugars to less than 10% of total calories per day.
Courtney Gaine, president and CEO of the Sugar Association, said while the Sugar Association supports transparency for all ingredients, including sugar and artificial sweeteners as well as calories, “the draft guidance for voluntary menu labeling continues an overly narrow focus on added sugars despite a lack of evidence indicating that such a focus improves dietary patterns or health outcomes.” Gaine said added sugars consumption has gone down by 30% since 2000; at the same time, obesity in children increased by 45% and in adults by 37%.”
Read the full article here (subscription required): https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/20410-fda-proposed-restaurants-voluntarily-disclose-added-sugars-content
March 22, 2026
"The Feeding the Economy report affirms the vital role food and agriculture play in our nation’s economic resilience and food security. Commercial bakers have long been proud partners to American agriculture, sourcing 85 percent of their core ingredients from domestic farmers....Sponsoring organizations from the food and agriculture industries, who helped make the 2026 study possible, provided commentary on this year’s findings. The full list of sponsoring organizations includes: ...The Sugar Association"
March 10, 2026
"Courtney Gaine, president and CEO of the Sugar Association, a scientific body that supports the U.S. sugar industry, told the USDA Outlook Forum that the school meal standards taking effect next year might prohibit added sugars in kindergarten meals and could significantly restrict them in other grades. That change alone would cut sugar demand by over 130,000 short tons. The industry faces additional pressure from rising GLP-1 weight-loss drug usage, which jumped from 12% in May 2024 to 18% in November 2025, though Gaine cautioned it remains "premature to assess the impact."
March 3, 2026
"Gaine added, "There is no data to support all this." She said the focus on added sugar is often politically motivated, but food groups have not pushed back on the MAHA pressure. There is a lot of fear of retaliation, and for good reason they have not wanted to push back publicly," Gaine said. "I think it’s going to demand a coordinated, really coordinated, pushing back. Any effort up (until) now has been to go along to get along, and I don’t know if that’s going to work."
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