Like with wine, the information on olive oil labels can be misleading to those who vaguely know it to be healthy but don’t have any idea why. Using color label printers, manufacturers can best present details, ingredients, and nutritional guidelines to inform, rather than confuse, potential customers.
In a Seattle Refined column for KOMO News, Britt Thorson advises consumers to be picky when it comes to choosing the olive oil they cook with. This follows suggestions from a recent European initiative, which asserts that American standards for olive oil are appallingly lax.
This signals an important change for olive oil businesses to consider, since there’s difference over the standards of the “extra virgin” label. Thorson discusses what customers should look for in labels, a process which can inform how companies produce them.
“Check the label to see when the date of harvest was. Olive oil is the opposite of wine – you want newer rather than older,” Thorson writes. “If you’re shopping now, look for bottles with a harvest date of 2014 or 2013 (olives harvest in the fall, so the 2013 date will just mean September or October of last year – not that long ago).”
The consequences of olive oil labeling can be seen in the news: a New Jersey company called Kangadis Food Inc. was forced into bankruptcy after a scandal involving faulty labels on their products. It used oil devised from pomace as opposed to the “100 percent virgin” quality it claimed.
Printing solutions can help companies organize the kinds of changes that might promote health and good practices. The cost to do so can be a lot simpler than you might think, especially if you make smart choices when acquiring your printing equipment.
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