Consumers and advocate group’s disputes heat up over faulty food labels

This blog has reported on the rising demand for transparent labels from consumers. While this has manifested, most recently, in demands for increased regulation on genetically modified ingredients, it’s being extended to some of the marketing tactics that are prevalent in food labels.

For example, many cereal and breakfast manufacturers will add fruit to the product to promote a healthier item. But according to an MSNBC article, these claims might not be true.

“It has blueberry bits,” Michael Jacobson from the Center of Science in the Public Interest told the source. “And what is that? It’s mostly sugar and soybean oil, then little bits of real blueberry that’s been artificially colored.”

Many customers, when presented with this information, felt “duped” by the “berry bait-and-switch.” Although companies may be listing every ingredient on the secondary labels, the primary ones show what many feel to be misleading advertisements of the product that’s behind the packaging.

One of the reasons why many companies are able to depict a product that may contain real ingredients and then list the artificial ones on the back is because of the world “flavored.” As long as it is on the food label, producers are covered under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations.

In addition, the FDA spoke with the source and said that it does not inspect labels, but brings consumer generated complaints to these producers. In fact, the agency told the source that it is the consumer’s responsibility to read the entire label, not that of the FDA to enforce this marketing.

Regardless of what a business sells, it’s clear that consumers and advocate groups give special attention to the way a company represents itself. In doing so, businesses will, at the very least, want to have a high-quality, custom label that can differentiate it from competitors. By investing in a Primera LX900 color label printer, companies can accomplish this goal.