ENG 101
M Jacqueline Corrales
LABELING AND CONSUMERS
The American food industry provides food labels containing information about how healthy their products are, just to ensure their revenue. Instead, consumers should know what to look for and how to interpret these labels, because if they are read carefully, labels tell us what the manufacturers want us think about the healthfulness of the product. However, consumers deserve food labels that explain what is in the package so that they can understand because labels should serve customers, not just the food industry.
Although food labels are supposed to tell us exactly what is in the food, marketers have created a language of their own to make foods sound more healthful than they really are. Food claims using words like “natural,” “pure,” “doctor recommended,” “lower cholesterol” or “contains antioxidants” have become a common way for companies to easily convince consumers. Claims on food products have less information about what is nutritious, because marketers are more interested in how to promote their products through graphics, colors, shape and the size of the boxes. Usually, health claims state a relationship between the components of the food and consumers’ health; therefore, a food claim make consumers think that buying and eating a particular product will actually make them healthier. For instance, if we take a look at Honey Nut Cheerios, we see on the front of the package a beautiful red heart with a claim stating, “can help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease,” followed by a disclaimer in small and unclear letters stating, “as part of a low fat diet with the soluble fiber in Honey Nut cheerios.” People who are suffering from diabetes, high cholesterol or are obese would not think twice about purchasing the product. As Andrea Thompson says, “In a survey it was found that forty one percent of respondents trust that all or most of the nutrients claims such as ‘low fat’ or ‘high fiber’ are accurate, while fifty six percent believe that some or more of them are accurate”; therefore, people trust what food claims state and their benefits because the food industry is supposedly under the supervision of the government.
The Nutritional Labeling Act was signed on November 1990, by President H. W. Bush. This law gave the Food and Drug Administration the authority to require nutrition labeling on most food. Although this law was created to provide consumers with information in terms of nutrition, the Nutrition Facts label misleads consumers. Terms such as thiamine, hydrochloride, riboflavin, niacin foliate, alphatecopherol, ascorbic acid, just to mention a few are hard to understand. Because of the lack of knowledge, many people depend on what the Nutrition Facts say when they try to make a healthy food selection. There are many people suffering from obesity who are looking to cut calories, fat and carbohydrates. How can they overcome their conditions if they are not able to understand food labels? As Jessica Toed states , “In a recent study of patients with chronic illness, eighty nine percent of whom reported on food labels, found that many were unable to use the Nutrition Facts.” In reality, even people who go to school, college and even professionals are not able to understand the food labeling nutrition terminology. In addition, lack of time does not allow people to stop and read the food labeling accurately. Ingredients are not easy to read, because they are typed too small, and they do not use bullets to separate one ingredient from another. Allergic and non -allergic ingredients are listed together and are highlighted in red. All forms of sugar are typed in terminology that consumers do not understand such as syrup, maltose, nectar; sucrose should be listed followed by the word sugar. Similarly, this should be done with sodium, saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. As William Neuman states, “What we are suggesting is that food products be labeled in a consistent way with information that will help the general public decrease their risk for chronic diseases and this is the type of information that is unlikely to currently appear on the package” because the nutrition facts are called to give consumers a clear summary of significant information to help consumers.
In addition, in an effort to better inform consumers about nutritional food content, certain industries have recently created a front package nutrition label called Nutrition Keys. The industry created it in response to First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign to help people choose more healthful food. However, the front label added to show consumers the real state of a product with clear symbols to guide consumers avoids contents that promote obesity, cancer and heart disease. This does not help much because it only contains a little information. For example, in some drinks we can see a small front label describing the number of calories like zero, ten or fifty, but it does not specify sugar content. Those who used to read the Nutrition Facts would go back to the traditional one to try to understand, but they get confused. As Kelly Brownell states, “just putting those numbers on the front of the package could be confusing rather that helpful.” People need to know specifically, which of the ingredients might be affecting their health, what they should not consume, who should or should not consume a particular ingredient, and what the consequences could be from drinking or eating a particular food frequently. Consumers need to be warned when a food is high in calories and low in nutrients in order make them eat less or stop buying a food that has such warnings because the excess of calories, fat, sugar and sodium are hurtful just as the alcohol, smoke and drugs are. Therefore, on its labels, the food industry should warn consumers about harmful substances contained in its products and change the label system in a way that everybody understands. As Michael F Jacobson states, “another intuitive system could use red, yellow, or green dots to indicate whether a food has healthy, middling or unhealthy levels of a given nutrient.’ This can be a great strategy, because we have to take into consideration that a lot Americans lack time or do not understand the labeling language and that many Americans lack English language skills.
The traditional food labeling, the new front labeling, and food claims in general do not have accurate information at all. The government must review and ensure that all the food industries produce what the consumers deserve and not what the food industry wants people to think about their products. On the other hand, the government and the food industry cannot work alone. Consumers need to read and interpret labels before they consume a product, because healthy claims on a product only increase the price of the product and mislead consumers.
