The label that appears on packaged food today remains substantially the same as when it first appeared in 1994. A few minor regulatory issues have been finalized, and a number of the so-called "health claims" criteria clarified and, in some cases, modified slightly.
      Of much greater import are the reference values for nutrient content (the recommended dietary intake of each nutrient), upon which the present Daily Values (DVs) are calculated. These have also remained the same.
      To summarize, and clarify, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initially established a set of values for the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), which represent their recommendation of what is considered adequate for human nutrition. Published in 1973, these were referred to as the "U.S. Recommended Daily Allowances (U.S. RDAs)," and were based upon the confusingly similar sounding "Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs)" established independently by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Research Council.
      When the new food label appeared in 1994, the FDA simply renamed the "U.S. RDAs" to "Reference Daily Intakes (RDIs)" to help clarify the ambiguity in the names. Although the NAS had since published updates of their RDAs, in "Recommended Dietary Allowances: 9th Edition (1980)," and "Recommended Dietary Allowances: 10th Edition (1989)," the values referenced by the FDA's RDIs remain those that were established in 1973.
      The new FDA label of 1994 also introduced the term "Daily Reference Values (DRVs)," in order to establish a point of reference "for macronutrients that are sources of energy: fat, saturated fat, total carbohydrate (including fiber), and protein; and for cholesterol, sodium and potassium, which do not contribute calories." These values are based upon total caloric intake, as specified on the food label.
      Together, the RDIs and DRVs, though they do not appear on the food label, are used to calculate the Daily Values (DVs) which appear as percentages of their respective reference values.
      Is all of this beginning to resemble something like alphabet soup? Perhaps. But there is a very important revelation here, so a rereading of this brief summary would be constructive. This information frames one of the most contentious issues in nutrition today: The modern food label, for all its worth, is based upon science from the 1960s and before.
      "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."