Looking to improve American eating lifestyles, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working to implement two new measures that would change labeling on food packaging.

By putting the labeling on the front of food packaging and changing serving sizes to meet modern typical American diets, the FDA is hoping people will make smarter choices when it comes to eating, FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said.

“Our goal is to provide consumers with the best information possible,” she said. “Our focus is to provide accurate information to consumers so that they can use that information to make different decisions.”

The move is a long time coming, said Christopher Wharton, an assistant professor of nutrition at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation.

Before teaching at ASU, Wharton was at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, where he studied various food policies.

“Serving sizes can be misleading,” Wharton said.

It’s important to have accurate information because food labels help people determine how foods will contribute to their overall daily diet, he said.

Current food labeling is out of date because serving sizes were implemented in the early 1990s and were based on surveys measuring Americans’ eating habits in the 1970s and ‘80s, he said.

“Not many people have just a quarter cup of ice cream anymore,” Wharton said.

Americans in general tend to fool themselves into thinking they’re eating healthier than they are when they look at the current food labeling, he said, and bringing labels up to date will help solve that.

The labeling is confusing, causing many people to misjudge how much food they’re consuming and its actual nutritional value, he said.

“Serving size is probably one of the more important issues today,” Wharton said. “People need to understand what they’re really getting.”

According to the Weight-control Information Network, an information service of the National Institutes of Health, two-thirds of Americans are overweight.

Freshman food and nutrition major Kathleen Harrison said better food labeling would be a step toward improving American health efforts.

People don’t fully understand portion control and eating healthily because they don’t have the necessary information to do so, she said.

“It would teach them how much food they should be getting rather than having them estimate it themselves,” Harrison said.

Current measures are expected to take the better part of this year to implement, FDA officials said.

Public feedback has to be examined first and then the FDA can start putting the new labeling in place, she said.

Reach the reporter at dbjoraas@asu.edu