The changing tide of food labels

Food labels might have many different pieces of information for consumers to absorb, but in that big concentrated rush of data, it might pose a challenge to your business if certain important lines go missing.

That’s what the Associated Press describes in a recent article about the way that some major companies are hiding some ingredients from prying eyes altogether by wiping them away completely. If the ingredient is something with potentially dangerous side effects, then it could be good overall, but only if label changes reflect the actual ingredients in your product.

The story covers how the technical, chemical ingredients have been omitted from products (and their labels) when it comes to real food and beverage items like Gatorade or macaroni and cheese. Some of the nixed elements include colors, flavors and highly processed material like the dreaded “high fructose corn syrup.”

It might be the influence of blogs and other vocal sources of consumer opinion, the Globe noted, quoting health and food blogger Vani Hari of FoodBabe.com on the reason a company might pay more attention to preservatives and some of the “less pronounceable” things one finds one nutrition facts.

“The reason companies don’t publicize it is that they don’t want to bring attention to these ingredients,” she said. “They want to slowly start to remove them until they’re all gone.”

Is this ultimately for the greater public good? That’s not a question your company will likely be able to answer on their own, but with color label printers these adjustments can be clear, efficient and up to date.