New Food Labeling: Good Idea or Just More Games?
I’m not entirely sure what to make of this new front-of-package and quick-to-read food label. For starters it’s a voluntary move by the food industry (which instantly smells fishy), and for seconds (ok, no more puns) they’re claiming altruistic motivations. As reported in the Los Angeles Times:
New labels, called Nutrition Keys by the food industry that created them, were announced Monday by the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Marketing Assn. The groups say they developed the labels in response to First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign that in part calls for an easier way for shoppers, especially parents, to make informed food choices.
Yuh-huh. We’re not the only ones not buying that. According to Marion Nestle of the Food Politics blog:
There is only one explanation for this move: heading off the FDA’s Front-of-Package (FOP) labeling initiatives.
See, apparently recommendations from a team of health specialists think front-of-package labels should focus on the bad stuff, and not use the space to trumpet things like protein and fiber.
To be honest, I don’t know if any of this even matters. Last we’d heard, those calorie listings on fast foods weren’t changing people’s choices there, and we live in a calorie-obsessed society. So would seeing sodium and saturated fat on the front of a package be that much more of a deterrent?
Maybe we need to take a cue from Canada’s front-of-pack cigarette warnings. Imagine that bottle of Easy Cheese had a label on it that said “eating this will clog your arteries” along with a picture like this. Now that would get my attention, as delicious as spray cheese can be (I’m not kidding).
What do you think?
Image via LA Times
OK, now that picture of the clogged artery is gross! Yes that would make me take a second thought about the purchase (although I wouldn’t eat that plastic cheese anyway…just saying.). I do think the “numbers” are important to be aware of, but I think what is MORE important, is the ingredient list! High Fructose Corn Syrup anyone? MSG by any other name is still MSG and is in so much stuff. Here’s a link to the list, it’s staggering: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html I think it’s WHAT is in all the processed food we eat that is getting us in trouble. It all boils down to the mighty dollar and what is cheaper to produce. Add enough sugar and chemicals and dirt tastes good! I’m all for Clean Eating and will slip now and again for a packaged item, but boy can I tell I did so an hour or two later. That’s my take anyway.
Those labels aren’t going to do anything for me. I still have to read the back so I can figure out what doesn’t contain additives and adjuncts and all sorts of things I don’t want to eat. With this sort of thing more people will think their food is healthy when it’s not. It doesn’t say anything about whether or not it contains hydrogenated oils or anything else that we should be avoiding.
For me, the obsessive lable- and ingredient- list reader, these new labels probably wont’ do much. However, I think it is a nice step towards making the general public aware of the reality of their food choices. I’m enough of an optimist to be heartened by this news, then a little discouraged. Mostly heartened, though.
“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” ~Abraham Lincoln
“Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.” ~Sigmund Freud
“The more I see, the less I know for sure.”
— John Lennon
I agree entirely. However I live in Canada and I can definitly tell you that the photos on the front of the cigarette packages don’t do a whole lot either. You’d think they would, but everyone just seems to ignore them. Smoking should just be illegal! Too bad that’ll never happen considering the gov’t gets such a profit out of it. Sickening.
Until portion sizes are more uniform, labeling of any kind doesn’t really do much. I’ll stick to the outer aisles and the Farmers’ Markets.
I think it is more important to keep spreading blogs and sites like yours to help educate those that want to be educated. Those that don’t won’t look at any label. I know that I have 180′d much of my product because of your book and blog but I was willing to change. Maybe these front labels will make a few people think. My quest for healthy foods started from a deep desire not to end up on the medications later in life that seem to be standard. I wish people would see it from that perspective.
I am so sick of all the obsession over nutrition information. For one, my ideas of what constitutes healthy is in many ways radically different from the mainstream, so ingredients list are a hell of a lot more important to me than calories and fat grams (news flash: there’s a ton of ways to get the “right” number while using really shady ingredients). Secondly, I’m an adult, I pay my own way, and I get to eat whatever the hell I want without some organization somewhere trying to shame me by pointing at the number of calories. I don’t even eat junk food, ever, but every time a new “OMG McDonald’s is gonna give you TEH FAT and KILL YOU!!!!11!!!” report comes out I get an immediate craving for those nasty fries.
Threse and Lena, sadly what you both say rings true. For those who want more information, who are already nutrition-savvy, this new labelling is preaching to the choir. For those who don’t want it and don’t care – well, they won’t pay any attention to it anyway. Every week it seems I am wedged between customers at the grocery store who are buying primarily from the processed food aisles. I gett the dirty stink dye when the clerk has to look up produce codes, while these customers proceed to unload six two-litre bottles of corn syrup filled soft drinks, a cache of frozen dinners, cheetos and such. I don’t think you can go wrong eating real food. I never demonize any food, as it normally comes back into vogue a few years laters, (take eggs for example). I never idolize any food either, as the health claims are normally exaggerated, (oat bran, anyone). My big craving is In n’ Out animal-style with extra well done fries and a vanilla shake. I don’t indulge too often, but just thinking about it . . . Mmmm.
How will I know what amount of Fiber is insoluble or soluble? Whether the sugar comes from high fructose corn syrup or whether it comes from a healthier less refined source? Don’t get me wrong, the design for the new nutrition label is brilliantly eye-catching. I just don’t know whether or not it will provide enough information for a consumer to make an informed decision. Who knows though.