It's understandable why a company might be skeptical about including certain information on its food labels that might cast its products in a negative light. But true health and safety matters are about more than PR: they depend on helping the customers that allow your business to do what it does.
There's some scientific evidence now that says label transparency could be good for business, too. Research from Cornell has found that labels pointing out some scary factors surrounding food safety risks could be be an enticement for consumers, although this obviously requires delicate handling.
The press release regarding the study that led to this conclusion pointed out that information perceived as negative needs to be used carefully, in special contrast with "good" language, to make customers more at ease. But this is easily done with the right attitude and a color label printer.
The example that the release gives is that of telling customers that your product doesn't contain a certain bad ingredient, followed by a few details about the reason such ingredients might be harmful. This might be a good way of getting the consumer on your side if it's handled in a way that doesn't seem to obvious.
"Even seemingly negative information was valued over just the label itself," Professor Harry Keiser of Cornell said in this release. More than 350 participants were surveyed to gather the information used in this study.
Context can be everything in these situations, so make sure your food labels create one that is beneficial to your company and truthful as well, so that everyone is satisfied.
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