Obama Administration Looking Into Strict New Sugar Regulations
Halloween has long been a favorite holiday for many a youngster in the United States. But if President Barack Obama has it his way, a key factor into the popularity of the spooky tradition may be lost in 2015â¦ and several other holidays, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentineâs Day, might be drastically negatively impacted as well. Thatâs because his administration is now pushing to set newÂ federal controls onÂ sugar usage in the food and beverage industries, with major taxes on those products that refuse to meet their new, highly-restrictive standards. Everything from cough syrup toÂ candy barsÂ will be impacted by these strong regulations, and experts from numerous food-related industries believe Obamaâs ideas will dramatically change the landscape of the American dietâ¦ and not necessarily in only good ways, either. The new regulations would put a cap on the total grams of sugars allowed in food and beverage products made in, or imported into, the United States. All consumable products, regardless of what type ofÂ product they are, will be limited to 5g of sugars per serving. Products that use a warning label, which theÂ FDA is currently conceptually designing,Â will be allowed to go up to 15g of sugars per serving. All products with 10g of sugar or more will also need to sport a âcandyâ sticker on their outer packaging. Companies can use more than 15g of sugars per serving, but their taxes will increase by 0.1% per gram of sugar in their âhigh sugar index,â which the Obama administration defines as the average amount of sugars per serving in all of a companyâs products that contain 15.1g or more of sugar. Some companies, like Coca-Cola and Nabisco, might see their taxes increase by as much as 20% to 30% as a result of these new rules. If implemented, these sugar regulations would impact numerous facets of daily life for practically every American citizen. A can of Coca-Cola has 39g of sugars. A Snickers bar? 27g. But what about less-obvious products? DiGiorno pizzas contain roughly 6g of sugar; theyâd need to decrease their sugar count by 1g per serving, or wear a warning label on their box. Nyquil cough syrup has 13g of sugars per serving, so not only would they need the warning label, but theyâd also need to use a âcandyâ label as well, on a medicinal product. Arguably the most controversial element of the newÂ regulations is that President Obama is looking at pushing them through not with the consent of Congress, but by executive fiat. White House Senior Aide Paul Horner says that the White House âcan wait around for years trying to get this critical measure in place, or we can skip over the middle man and get this done ourselves.â He also adds that âitâs perfectly legal,â because âthe FDA and other regulatory agencies can set their own standards based on our firm guidance.â While some health advocates believe the new regulations would greatly improve the way of life for every American, others arenât so sure these regulations will have a positive impact. In an open letter sent to the White House last week, Nabisco said that âthese new regulations would do little more than drive dozens upon dozens of American companies out of business, without really benefiting American consumers in the process,â later adding that âprohibition doesnât work,â and that âconsumers should have freedom of choice in a supposedly free society.â