In a recent Q&A article for the Washington Post, Hope Warshaw was asked a question about meat packaging that many consumers might have. Specifically, an anonymous submitter asks whether the fat content listed on meat labels is just relevant for the raw item or for its cooked state. For products that will be prepared in predictable ways, making labels with this kind of specificity is important.
Though it’s a long answer, Warshaw’s response does contain some pretty direct facts that can be understood and used as guidelines for any kind of meat label your company decides to print.
“On packaged raw meat and poultry products, the nutrition facts are listed based on the product’s raw weight,” Warshaw writes. “However, if the raw product was formed into patties, then the serving size would be the raw weight of each patty — for example, three ounces.”
This last part can be especially important, as consumers who purchase ground meat might have misconceptions about what they need to do with these foods to be safe. Writing for Beef Magazine, Amanda Radke identifies some of the other falsities that plague the public’s perception of processed beef in particular.
The title of the article “Misinformation Creates Fear for Ground Beef,” should be a clue as to the importance of what labels need to accomplish. As Radke writes, these include the idea that beef from a major provider is automatically less safe than meat from a “local” farm or provider, or that ground meat is more likely to be contaminated.
A color label printer should have the range to help express to the shopping public how best to use a food item, and what they might not already know about proper handling and safety.
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