Smart Choice Program?

The food industry is already buzzing with word of the Keystone Center's Smart Choices Program (which is to be unveiled today at the American Dietetic Association's conference in Chicago). The program is capturing the attention of food industry giants such as Coca-Cola, ConAgra and General Mills. As part of the Smart Choices Program, companies will list calories per serving as well as servings per container on the front of their labels. Other big food industry players, such as Mars Inc. have already made announcements about this informational migration on their labels.

While this may be a sign of things to come with large, mainstream food companies, how do these changes affect the gourmet or specialty categories? Or do they? I know many gourmet/specialty food retailers take packaging into consideration when choosing product lines for their stores, so would calorie/serving count on the front of packaging be an added bonus for shoppers? Or would it be a reason to avoid certain products?

Stephanie