Center for Science in the Public Interest

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that has been instrumental in changing policy and passing laws concerned with food safety, nutrition, and alcohol in the United States. Some of its more sensational public campaigns have included calling fettuccine Alfredo a “heart attack on a plate” and revealing that Chinese kung pao chicken is as bad nutritionally as a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder. CSPI’s lobbying was a key factor in passing the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, which requires the Nutrition Facts panel on virtually all food and beverages. More recently, CSPI succeeded in getting trans fats added to the Nutrition Facts panel, an issue it raised in 1994 that became law in 2006. Earlier, CSPI acted to get warning labels for pregnant women on alcoholic beverages and to enact a ban on deceptive food advertising.