Article gives insight into reading food labels

After the pink slime controversy, many consumers have started demanding more clarity about what may actually be inside food products versus what’s on the food labels. While companies have caught onto this demand, sparking a rise in “all-natural” foods in grocery aisles and farmer’s markets, most consumers remain skeptical, furthering the divide between the public and the major food companies producing these products.

But, a recent article by Philadelphia-based health coach Maura Manzo in Philadelphia Magazine has shed some light on finding clarity in food labels.

Manzo says that statements made on the fronts of labels don’t let consumers know what’s in the product. Consumers may want to ignore advertisements such as, “heart-healthy” or “all-natural” as there are many loopholes companies can take to make these claims without truly fulfilling them. The best way to know what’s in a food product is to look at the ingredients list on the back.

Ingredients are also listed by order of content. The first ingredient on the list is the one that is the most present in the product. So if high fructose corn syrup shows up first on an ingredients list, it means there’s more of that in the product than anything that follows on the list.

Also, Manzo says buyers should know that chemicals ending with “-ose” indicate that type of sugar has been added to the product on top of whatever natural sugars may have already been there.

The magazine also goes on to state that if you have a hard time reading the ingredient – or find its name rather cumbersome to pronounce – it may not be the best idea to consume it. And, Manzo backs up the notion that the less ingredients the better.

To help alleviate consumer confusion, small grocers or local farmers may want to design custom labels for natural foods that provide a clear picture of the product’s contents.