Since more people are been educated about food, the food labeling has been becoming very important in nowadays. Food labeling tells what is been added to the food, what nutritional values it contains, and the number of amounts of ingredients being added. It is a very good tool to show people who want to track their nutrition intake. there are some advantages as following: providing consumers information on food to give their chance to choose their ideal food comparing those similar products; avoiding food hypersensitivity; helping people eat more healthier which can reduce the cost of healthcare. Everything has two sides, so there is some disadvantage too: due to some selfish market strategies by showing wrong labeling, it can mislead customers in a wrong direction; so many alternative products means so many food labels need to read, which can be one of the reasons to cause decidophobia. It may make people overwhelmed; so we need always keep critical in mind to make the right decision for our own health.
Everyone that goes to the grocery store and reads food labels knows that there are so many different words and phrases that may sound good but do not actually know what it means. People choose to believe something written on a label that sounds good without looking further into what that exactly means. It could have no meaning or not have the positive effect on food production they think it does. For example, people believe organic is healthier and GMOs are harmful but in fact, organic is proven to be healthier and GMOs are not harmful. There is nothing wrong if someone chooses to eat organic but they should be aware of all the facts. The fact that a few words on a food label that may not have any meaning can influence many consumers into buying that product is mindboggling. Adding more words onto labels could potentially overwhelm the consumer even more. But, I do believe adding GMOs to the label could potentially be a good idea to give consumers complete transparency into how our food is produced. With adding GMOs, we must first set the record straight will all the other confusing words and phrases on labels to not confuse consumers even more. If more research is done by the consumers, there would be less confusion when it comes to purchasing everyday foods. Maybe the companies should also be more clear on exactly what their words mean so consumers are not misguided. Like with gluten-free or any “free of this” put on a label when they normally aren’t found in that product, to begin with, to cause people to think the product without those words on their label is bad.
Food labeling is currently a big topic in the agriculture and food industry. Many people have conflicting opinions about it. I think that there are definitely some pro’s and con’s to enhanced food labeling. Some of the pro’s include more transparency to the consumer regarding what is in what they are buying. Consumers will know exactly what they are purchasing, and can make a more informed decision. People who are allergic to certain things will be safer, and people who are trying to buy healthy products will be able to do with more certainty. Some cons include producers losing profits depending on what is in their product. People who do not grow organically may lose sales because of some of the things they use in their products. GMO products and other agriculture methods may scare off consumers if they are uneducated, which would hurt agricultural producer’s sales. As you can see, there are many pro’s and con’s and factors that need to be taken into account when thinking about introducing enhanced food labels and making new rules about them.I think that this is a very interesting argument, and am interested to see the extent to which enhanced labels are implemented, and the reaction from consumers and producers.
A Class Journal for UDel CANR AGRI 130
