外刊阅读 | 科学美国人 | 被忽略的营养成分标签

Since the early years of the web, tech companies have been shielded from liability for actions committed on their platforms by users, an important legal framework that tech leaders say has allowed the internet to flourish.

shield from  ...    庇护

自互联网诞生之初，科技公司就被免除了对用户在其平台上所做行为的责任，科技行业领袖表示，正是这个重要的法律框架框架让互联网得以蓬勃发展。

How the Nutrition Facts Label Has Changed Food in the U.S.

营养成分标签如何改变美国食品

1

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.

Yet this familiar, everyday product label actually has a complicated legacy.I study food regulation and diet culture and became interested in the Nutrition Facts label while researching the history of Food and Drug Administration policies on food standards and labeling. In 1990, Congress passed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, mandating nutrition labels on all packaged foods to help address growing concerns about rising rates of chronic illnesses linked to unhealthy diets. The FDA introduced its “Nutrition Facts” panel in 1993 as a public health tool that empowered consumers to make healthier choices.

The most obvious purpose of the Nutrition Facts label is for consumers to learn the nutritional properties of a food. In practice, however, this label has done much more than simply inform shoppers. It also encodes a wide range of political and technical compromises about how to translate food into nutrients that meet the diverse needs of the American public.The daily value, or DV, percentages on the label don’t all come from the same source. This is a reflection of differing public health targets for the label.Daily value percentages for macronutrients – carbs, fats and proteins – are based on U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines. DVs for macronutrients registered a new concern about overeating and a focus on “negative nutrition” encouraging maximum intake levels.

DVs reflect two fundamentally different causes for concern. The numbers for micronutrients represent a floor: the basic minimum vitamin needs a child should meet to avoid malnutrition. The numbers for macronutrients, on the other hand, are a ceiling: a target maximum limit that adults should avoid surpassing if they want to prevent future health problems caused by eating too much high sodium or fatty food.

This led to imitators in other policy arenas: first “Drug Facts” for over-the-counter medicines, then consumer protection initiatives in various tech industries, such as Federal Communications Commission “Broadband Facts” and “AI Nutrition Facts.”The Nutrition Facts panel has remained largely consistent since the 1990s, despite some updates like adding lines for trans fats in 2002 and for added sugars in 2016 to reflect evolving public health priorities.

Translating the diverse American diet into a consistent set of standardized nutrients necessitated new measures, testing procedures and standard references.

将多样化的美国饮食转化为一套一致的标准化营养素需要新的措施、测试程序和标准参考。

While envisioned as an education tool, I believe the Nutrition Facts label in practice has worked more like a market infrastructure, reshaping the food supply to meet shifting dietary trends and public health goals long before consumers find those foods at the supermarket.

翻译练习，欢迎大家文末留言打卡，下期推送文章公布答案哟，一起阅外刊学英语吧！

获取完整版PDF 下载后及时转存：

网盘链接：https://pan.quark.cn/s/e79e82d75f49

点击下方链接查看往期文章 ↓ ↓ ↓记得点关注哟

扫码关注我的视频号

分享，收藏，点赞与在看，至少我要拥有一个吧↓↓↓