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One of the responsibilities of the Food and Drug Administrationis to assure that foods are labeled properly. It providesregulations on what, where, and how prominently informationshould be placed on packaging. The idea is that consumersshould not be misled by what they read on the groceries theybuy. However, the labels should also be written in plain,understandable language. This means that sometimes regularEnglish words—words that have commonsense but slightly fuzzy meanings—must be definedmore precisely for food labeling. Here are 11 words that mean something more specific on thesupermarket shelves.
美國食品藥物管理局(FDA)的責任之一就是確保食品被正常標注。該局提供對包裝上應標示的食品成分，產地及生產過程這些重要信息的管理規定，目的是確保產品上的說明不會誤導消費者。然而，標簽應使用簡單且易懂的語言。這就意味著有時正常的英語單詞在食品標示中應該更加簡潔明了，這些詞都是常見的，但是意思稍微有些模糊。下面這11個詞在超市的貨架上就有著特殊的意義。
1. IMITATION
A food that looks like another food but isn’t made of the same stuff is an imitation, right? Notquite. It only has to be labeled as “imitation” if it has a lower amount of protein or some otheressential nutrient than the food it’s trying to look like.
一種食品看上去像另一種食品，但是原料卻不相同，那么這就是一個仿造品，是嗎?這是不準確的。如果該食品比被模仿的食品的蛋白質或其他一些營養成分低，那么它只能被貼上“仿造品”的標簽。
2. FREE
If it’s free of fat, or sugar, or salt, it doesn’t mean that not one trace of those things is to be foundin it. The FDA evaluates certain terms with reference to a typical portion size known as an RACC(reference amounts customarily consumed per eating occasion). An RACC of eggnog, for example,is ½ cup. For croutons, it’s 7 grams, and for scrambled eggs, 100 grams. To be labeled “free” ofcalories, the food must have less than 5 per RACC. For fat and sugar, less than .5 grams. Forsodium, less than 5 milligrams. Also, the food must somehow be processed to be “free” of thosethings in order to get the simple “free” label. You can’t have “fat free lettuce,” only “lettuce, a fatfree food.”
食物上脫脂、無糖或者無鹽的字樣，并不意味著食物中完全沒有這些成分。美國食品藥物管理局(FDA)參照RACC(單次食用參考值)這個有代表性的分配比例來評估某些條款。例如，蛋酒的RACC數值是半杯。油炸面包丁是7克，炒雞蛋是100克。只有對應的RACC數值小于5，才能被標注為“free”，即：脂肪和糖分少于5克，鈉含量少于5毫克。此外，食品必須經過處理成"free"的商品，以獲得單一的標簽。你買不到“無脂肪生菜”，只能是“生菜，無脂肪的食物”。
3. LOW
Low is also defined with respect to set portion sizes and varies with whether it refers to calories,fat, or sodium. For fat it’s less than 3 grams. For calories, it’s less than 40, unless it’s a preparedmeal, in which case it’s 120 per 100 grams. Saturated fat and cholesterol have specific “low”values as well.
低含量也是用來定義食品中是卡路里、脂肪和鹽分的含量。脂肪要少于3克，卡路里要小于40，才能稱為"low"，如果是一頓總量100克的飯，總卡路里不得超過120。另外，飽和脂肪和膽固醇有特別低的價值含量。
4. REDUCED/LESS
Sometimes manufacturers want to make a relational claim about a food—not just that it’s “low” insome substance, but lower than it usually is (which may mean it doesn’t meet the standard for“low” at all). Relational claims are evaluated with respect to a reference food. A reference foodshould be the same type of food (chocolate ice cream compared to other chocolate ice cream)though the numbers against which the “reduced” claims are compared can be an average of thetop three brands. The “reduced” substance must be less than 25 percent of what it is in thereference food.
有時制造商想要做一個食品的相關聲明，不僅僅是標明某些成分中的低含量，而且比通常同類食品的含量還低(這就意味著它完全沒有達到低含量的標準)。一種參照食物應該是相同類型的食品根據數量和降低含量的比值評選出的平均前三名(例如巧克力冰激凌和其他巧克力冰激凌相比)。食物中降低的成分一定要比參照物的中該成分含量還要小25%。
5. LIGHT
Light (or lite) is also evaluated with respect to a reference food, and a rather complicated set ofconditions is taken into account for different substances. For example, if a “light” product hasmore than half of its calories from fat, the fat must be reduced by half per reference servingamount. If less than half its calories come from fat, it can be “light” if the calories per serving arereduced by 1/3. Sometimes foods that meet “low” requirements can also be labeled as “light.” “Lightly salted” should have 50 percent less sodium than a reference food.
Light通常也是被用來評定參考食物的，這是一種非常復雜的組合用來說明不同的成分。例如，如果一種“Light”食物的脂肪中一半以上的卡路里來自脂肪，其單份參考規格中的脂肪就必須減半。如果不到一半的卡路里來自脂肪，那么單份參考規格中的卡路里就要減少1/3。有些食品達到"low"的標準也能貼上"light"的標簽。鹽分偏少的食物中，其鹽分含量必須偏低至少50%。
6. HIGH
Our food labels don’t only brag about low levels of the bad stuff, but also about high levels of thegood stuff. “High” (or “rich in”) means that the food has 20 percent or more of the recommendeddaily value for that nutrient per reference serving.
我們的食品標簽不僅標榜食品中成分的“低含量”，也要宣傳高含量的好東西。高含量(豐富)就意味著食物中含有日常建議一餐所需營養價值的20%或者更多。
7. GOOD SOURCE
“Good source of” is a little lower than “high.” A food with this label should have 10 to 19 percentof the recommended daily value.
“Good source of“比”high“含量低一點。帶有這一標簽的食物應該擁有日常建議所需營養價值的10%到19%。
8. MORE
Below “good source” is “more,” “fortified,” “enriched,” “added,” “extra,” or “plus.” A food with 10percent of the recommended daily value can use one of these, but it only applies for vitamins,minerals, protein, fiber, and potassium.
在“大量的(good source)”標準之下的是“更多的(more),” “增強的(fortified),” “豐富的(enriched),” “有添加的(added),” “剩余的 (extra),”和“少量的(plus).”食物中擁有10%的日常所需營養就可以使用以上的這些詞中的一個，但是他只能應用在維他命，礦物質，蛋白質，纖維和鉀這些方面。
9. LEAN
“Lean” applies to seafoods or meats that have less than combined specified levels of fat, saturatedfat, and cholesterol (10g, 4.5g, and 95mg, respectively).
"lean"被用于海產品和肉類上，這些食物擁有比脂肪，含飽和脂肪酸的脂肪和膽固醇組合而成的特殊等級還要低(他們的含量分別是10克，4.5克，95毫克)。
10. HEALTHY
To qualify as “healthy,” a product must meet the “low” standard for fat and saturated fat, anotherstandard for sodium and cholesterol, and it must have at least 10 percent of the recommendeddaily value for a range of nutrients.
達到”健康“標準，該產品必須滿足低脂和含低飽和脂肪酸的脂肪的雙重標準，還有另一個鈉和膽固醇的標準。它必須擁有至少日常建議所需所有營養價值的10%。
11. NATURAL
After years soliciting suggestions and considering comments on the question of what “natural”should mean, no useful consensus could be reached, and the FDA decided to forgo establishing anofficial definition. Though it hasn’t issued rules for the use of “natural,” it endorses the generalunderstanding that it implies nothing artificial orsynthetic has been added that would not normallybe expected to be added.
對“天然”的界定經過數年的征求意見和評論后，一直也沒有達成一致的共識，美國食品藥物管理局決定放棄長久以來官方給出的定義。雖然沒有發布對“天然”用途的規定，但是管理局贊成普遍的理解，“天然”就是沒有經過人工的或是合成的，不會是人們通常被期望的那樣添加。
