NASHVILLE, Tenn. - It's being called the next step in fighting the problem of obesity in Tennessee, and the rest of the country.
The USDA announced Wednesday that every single piece of meat bought in a grocery store has to have nutritional information on it. In stores already, there's nutritional information on just about everything we eat.
The USDA will now require the same nutritional labeling information for meat, starting January of 2012.
The new labels will list things like calories, total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol for 40 of the most commonly bought cuts of beef, poultry, pork and lamb.
"It gives the customer more information about what they are eating, and it gives them an idea about the difference say between a sirloin and a rib eye, and the fat content and the protein content," says Tammy Loth, with the Turnip Truck grocery store.
To take it a step further: this spring, you'll see menu labeling at chain restaurants as well.
The belief is that having better nutritional knowledge will trim America's waistline as obesity has now become an epidemic.
But does information really equate to better choices? Some say no, pointing out the fact nutrition labels became mandatory in 1993. We know what we're eating, and we're still making bad choices.
The folks at the Turnip Truck said putting nutritional info on meat really won't be a major problem. Even though they will be required to do it by the first of 2012, most likely they will start offering up that information before then.
