Changes to food labelling
Posted by kathryn in Labels & advertising
Many of the foods we buy come in packets and these packets are covered in information, pictures and words. Designed to entice you to buy, much of this “stuff” is marketing information – encouraging you to believe the product is healthier, tastier, simply better than everything else. Some useful information does exist, but it’s often hard to decode.
As some of you will know, food labelling is one of my pet subjects. The words “Kathryn, what’s the difference between ‘light’ and ‘reduced fat’?” should only be used with extreme caution, and only if you have the time and energy for a bit of fervent ranting. I’ve given talks on the subject; written on the subject; and even been on the radio on the subject.
So I’m very excited to read in today’s herald that, from next month, all Kellogg’s cereal packets will include the following information:
- number of kilojoules in one serve
- what proportion of the daily recommended kilojoule intake each of those serves represents
And most significantly, this information is going to be slap, bang on the front of the packet, not hidden away on the side panels or back.
There are quite a few problems with food labels, but one of the biggies is that the information is given in isolation. There is no context about what the number of kilojoules / protein / sugars, listed on the nutrition information panel, actually means. Is 614 kilojoules a lot, or a little for a serve of yoghurt? Is 0.3g of saturated fat good or bad? 449 kilojoules for a serve sounds a lot, but is it? Unless there are some parameters and boundaries, or unless you’re able to spend time researching and checking, this information is meaningless. Without context you simply can’t make good decisions about the food products you buy.
So from next month Kellogg’s will be giving you a little bit of that context, making things a little bit easier for the consumer. Of course, for this to really be useful and effective we need it extended across a whole range of products, but it is a start. At the moment it’s only Kellogg’s, but McDonald’s and Sanitarium will probably follow by the end of the year.
06 June, 2006
Comments
Ha ! I see today that MacDonald’s is also going to add kilojoule and daily intake info on their wrappers. I look forward to the label that says “This burger contains one trillion times your daily sodium requirements !”
i am really fat and lazy and have no time to read any of the labels on food i buy!
some kind of graphic label that told me all the information i required would be better, that way i would not have to take a chemistry exam to understand the labels on food still.
you dont drink bleach because the label tells you its poison way before have to read the fine print to see how many calories it has in it.
Have been to Coles today and they have new labels in their deli department. Most foods are labelled either “made from Australian product with imported additives” or the other way round “Imported product with Australian additives” . I enquired what that meant – did they have details – and all they could tell me that whatever bit came first, ie Australian product or Imported Product was the biggest part of the food. What that meant as far as “sliced chicken breast” or “feta stuffed olives” was concerned, they had no info at all. Tell you what though, it put me off buying my usual 100g of turkey breast!
Dear mother
I agree the generalised information you mention in your comment is highly frustrating and really difficult to decode.
In my experience a lot of manufacturers and retailers take the view that it’s either too difficult or too expensive to effectively segregate ingredients during production; to know where all their ingredients come from; and to train their staff effectively. So they use general labels which allow them to comply with the food standards code, but don’t actually provide consumers with any useful information.
The same is true in the labelling of potential allergens – so many products now have “may contain …” on their labels, far more than actually need it. It’s a way for manufacturers to avoid responsibility for knowing about every step of their production processes.
I’ve actually emailed Coles today, asking about their deli labelling, and will post back their response.
I received feedback from Coles on their deli counter food labelling. There have been recent changes to the legislation regarding country of origin labelling, hence the new labels.
It still seems that if you want to buy Australian then the wording to look out for is “product of” – this means that each significant ingredient comes from Australia and virtually all processing / manufacturing has occurred her.
The rest of the labelling is still a bit shonky: “made in” means that the product was “substantially transformed” in that country. Hmm. With “local and imported” ingredients the order of the words does reflect the proportion of ingredients, ie “local” first means that most of the ingredients are from Australia.
You can get further information on ingredients listing but it comes from a back office computer in the store and I’ve been advised “may take some time”.
I still think we need better, clearer and simpler information than this. I should also say that I’m not singling out Coles as the “baddies” in this. Food labelling legislation is the problem and I’m sure all the supermarkets are doing the same thing.
Yes, I don’t think I shall be completely happy until I can read where a food has been sourced and what has happened to it before it hits the supermarket shelves / deli counter. Its all too mumbo jumbo for my liking. I can feel a campaign coming on!!
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