Last week in Ireland I stopped in one of those upscale, healthy foods grocery stores to grab something for lunch. I ended up with a Mexican Bean Wrap. After making my purchase I realized that I used the handy labeling on it to make my selection. It looked like this:
Then on Friday I was checking out all my favorite food blogs and came upon Very Good Taste again and this post about food labeling in the UK. This is basically what I was witnessing on my packaging.
One thing I’ve found to be true is that the more you cut fake, shelf-stable foods from your diet the less you need food labels.
Sure, I know from past calorie counting that there are about 80 calories in an apple, but other than that who cares. My point is, we know fresh, healthy foods like produce are good for us. We really don’t need a specific number to tell us that.
However, for foods like the wrap I got, it is helpful. It was delicious by the way.
I found the above post to be really interesting because it outlines all the politics that go into food labeling. We have similar problems in the US. All this infringement on rights of either the consumer or manufacturer.
Then I think they purposely make it confusing so people really don’t know what they are eating.
I understand food labels well, but that is only because I was required to study them for about 2 years of my life! I doubt the general public is going to put in that much effort. I’ve also found they are really hard to explain to someone else.
I wish we could come up with a similar system, where the important things are listed right out in the open for you. I know several attempts have been made at simplifying it, but they are brand specific.
A cohesive, simple program that everyone follows would be perfect. Dreaming, I know.
