The iconic black box that we see on the back of cans, jars, cartons, and boxes at the grocery store first appeared in the 1990s, after the passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. During the three years following that, the FDA developed the final rules that made this info mandatory on almost all packaged foods in the United States.
In his book From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age, historian Xaq Frohlich explains that the history of the FDA has been riddled with public anxiety. From early concerns about food adulteration to what is defined as "organic," the onus is on consumers to decipher those black information boxes and decide how much they trust food producers.
Xaq Froelich is an associate professor of the history of technology at Auburn University. Photo courtesy of University of California Press.
"From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age" chronicles the evolution of the black nutrition label printed on the back of processed foods. Photo courtesy of University of California Press.