By Matilda Charles
The time has come to study
the labels of foods you buy, even

if you’ve used those same prod-
ucts for a long time. Not only are

manufacturers changing the size

of the containers, they’re chang-
ing the ingredients. At this point

we need to take a very close look
at what we’re actually eating.
Changes to the ingredients in
products we’ve always trusted
might be blamed on supply chain
problems. If a manufacturer can’t
easily get one ingredient, they
might substitute something else.

But it means that what you as-
sumed you were getting might no

longer be true.
If, for example, you have to

keep an eye on your sodium lev-
els, you might discover that the

amount of salt in a particular
food has increased. You might
have to adjust how much you eat
or look for a different product.

We can no longer grab a dozen eggs and assume all will be
well. If you’re baking, too-small
eggs won’t work in your recipes.
You need to open the carton and

look at them. If you’re watch-
ing your cholesterol, you need to

squint and read the fine print on
the nutrition panel.
A warning: At the beginning
of the COVID-19 pandemic,

the Food and Drug Administra-
tion issued a temporary respite

to food manufacturers. To help
them keep producing food, the
FDA said manufacturers didn’t

have to put certain new informa-
tion on labels when “minor for-
mulation changes” were made to

food. The policy, started in Janu-
ary 2020, was intended to remain

in effect only for the duration of

the pandemic and has been re-
newed every 90 days. It was to

expire January. Since they have
to give 60 days notice to end the
designation, it’s not likely that it
will end until April, if that.