The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs to hear from you on proposed changes to the food label. The FDA is proposing to add the amounts of calcium and potassium to the nutrition facts on food labels. This is a great win for people with kidney disease as it will promote better tracking of calcium and potassium intake. People with kidney disease often need to decrease the amount of potassium and calcium they eat and these changes can help patients follow their dietitians’ recommendations much more easily.
Including the amount of phosphorus would also be helpful to kidney patients, as well as the general population, since more studies are pointing to the dangers of too much phosphorus. However, the FDA has not proposed adding phosphorus to the food label and to change that, we need your help.
You can submit comments to the FDA and tell the agency why it is so important that you are aware of what is in your food and how much of it is in there. NKF is sending this letter to the FDA, but your letter does not need to be as technical. Here is an outline of what you may want to consider including in your comments.
- Thank the FDA for proposing to include the amounts of calcium and potassium on food labels and tell the agency why including this information is helpful for you. Encourage the FDA to make this proposal final.
- Tell the FDA why including phosphorus would also be helpful for you and encourage them to add the amount of phosphorus to the food label.
- Thank the FDA for considering your comments.
Your comments will be displayed publicly, so make sure you don’t include any details like your address and phone number in the body of your comments. There are other sections where you can enter your personal information that the FDA will keep private and use only to verify that you are a real person.
Once you have drafted your comments, you can submit here.
Advocacy in Action 
Hello, my name is Sarah and I am a registered nurse. As a health care professional I see patients who struggle with kidney disease or failure, so I want to thank the FDA for considering adding calcium and potassium to all food labels. Please also consider adding phosphorous to labels as patients with kidney disease often struggle with high phosphorus levels as well. In my field, nothing is more satisfying than seeing patients succeed and having more autonomy. By adding these three items to food labels, you are encouraging those with kidney disease to have better control of their health, and a better quality of life. I urge the FDA to please make this proposal final. Thank you for your time and I look forward to seeing these changes in the near future.
Thank you for your response, Sarah! Please be sure to submit your comments directly to FDA by following this link: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2012-N-1210-0132 Thank you!
Dear FDA members: Thank you for planning to include the amount of calcium and potassium in the food label. We encourage you to make this inclusion final. As a dietitian that works with dialysis patients, I am very concerned regarding the phosphorus in food and highly encourage you to include phosphorus in the food label as well.
A high phosphrus can bring very negative consequences to patients that are on dialysis. Short term possible conequences can be watery eyes, intense itching, painful sores that don’t heal, vomiting and diahrrea. Long term possible side effects are heart attacks, strokes, amputations and sudden death. Dialysis patients struggle with a high Po4 more than with any other lab result. I strongly encourage you to include phosphorus in the food label. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Hi Ana Maria, Thank you for your response! Please be sure to submit your comments directly to FDA by following this link: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2012-N-1210-0132 Thank you!
Hello, my name is Phyllis and I have been recently diagnosed as having Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), something I will be dealing with for the rest of my life. Finding out you have CKD and having to monitor your diet so closely is very over whelming but, hearing the FDA is considering adding calcium and potassium will help me make the correct decisions for my diet, thank you. Please take a step further and consider adding Phosphorus to the nutritional label. I am learning how critical the nutritional labels are too understanding what I can eat and how much I can eat and stay healthy. I want to keep my medical cost down for me and for our nation as I am sure you do also.
Hi Phyllis, Thank you for your response! Please be sure to submit your comments directly to FDA by following this link: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2012-N-1210-0132 Thank you!
Hi. I am in stage 5 of ckd. Watching calcium & potassium is only part of the problem, I also have to watch phosphorus and I have to take phosphorus binders, to get rid of it.
This is such a mental game trying to balance everything, it will help if you include phosphorus amounts on the label. thank you Tom
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your response! Please be sure to submit your comments directly to FDA by following this link: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2012-N-1210-0132 Thank you!
– NKF
I was diaginosed two years ago with CKD. This is a very difficult disease as there are no drugs or operations (other than transplants, for which I am too old) that can help me. Thus CKD is a life threatening and life long problem. The sole treatment is to monitor my strict diet. However the lack of complete food labeling makes the process exceedingly difficult and in many cases impossible. I urge you to implement regulations that would add potassium and calcium to food labels. Thank you for your help.
Richard Meyer
Hi Richard,
Thank you for your response! Please be sure to submit your comments directly to FDA by following this link: http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=FDA-2012-N-1210-0132 Thank you!
– NKF
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