How did the Nutrition Facts label come to appear on millions of everyday American household food products? As Xaq Frohlich reveals, this legal, scientific, and seemingly innocuous strip of information can be a prism through which to view the high-stakes political battles and development of scientific ideas that have shaped the realms of American health, nutrition, and public communication. By tracing policy debates at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Frohlich describes the emergence of our present information age in food and diet markets and examines how powerful government offices inform the public about what they consume. From Label to Table explores evolving popular ideas about food, diet, and responsibility for health that have influenced what goes on the Nutrition Facts label—and who gets to decide that.

About the Author

Xaq Frohlich is Associate Professor of History of Technology at Auburn University. He works on issues relating to food and risk at the intersections of science, law, and markets.

Contents

Acknowledgments
A Note on Primary Sources

Introduction: Food and Power in the Information Age
1. An Age of Standards
2. Gatekeepers and Hidden Persuaders
3. Malnourished or Misinformed?
4. The Market Turn
5. A Government Brand
6. Labeling Lifestyles
Conclusion: The Informational Turn in Food Politics

Chronology
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"From Label to Table presents the history of institutionalism around nutritional facts, the social construction of consumers, the changes around the perception of food and its marketing, and the search to make food scientific and objective in the United States during the twentieth century."
— Not Even Past

"This thought-provoking book is a must read for anyone interested in understanding American food and wellness culture, and for anyone who reads nutrition labels. While it includes lots of policy detail, it is well written and accessible. Fantastic images help illustrate the arguments, and the biography of the label at the heart of the text is compelling and convincing."
— California History

"This absorbingly interesting book shines a novel light on the development of nutritional labeling in the United States. Taking its inspiration from science and technology studies, it knowledgeably identifies shifting 'assemblages' of people-plus-things in an intriguing and detailed history."—Anne Murcott, University of London and University of Nottingham

"From Label to Table is an archaeology of the food label, digging down through the sedimentary levels that the label's seemingly simple contents conceal. Tracing this story is a signal accomplishment, but there is more. Interwoven with the narrative is an analysis that maps the FDA's changing methods of food regulation onto the broader dynamics of twentieth-century American capitalism, especially the shift from the New Deal order to post-1980 neoliberal politics. The book adeptly moves between these levels, thereby inserting the emergence of informational food labeling as part of the transformations of late capitalism."—Roger Horowitz, author of Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food

Awards

Hagley Prize in Business History Finalist 2024 2024, Business History Conference

About the Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

Reviews

Awards