Food labelling

Nutrition labelling is one of the most important factors to help reduce unhealthy
eating and increasing obesity levels, they contain a list of the nutrients and the
percentage of sugars or substances the product contains (Hawkes, 2004 as cited in
Mick et al., 2012).
Food labelling needs to be clearly displayed and not misleading so they are easy to
read. It is important for companies to provide any warning information such as if an
item contains any food sources that could cause allergic reactions such as nuts and
glutens. Companies must always provide the public with information if any additives
where used whilst making food products (GOV, 2015). Food additives are a basic
manmade substance that is put into processed and packaged foods for preservative
and flavour reasons. there are six main types of additives which all contribute to
different factors within food, such as preservatives, nutritional additives, flavouring
agents, colouring agents, miscellaneous agents and even texturizing agents. These
have been added into many food products for many years to make foods taste better
and are more attractive to buy. These additives also include benefits to food products
by making them safer and more nutritious (Branen et al., 2001).
Most American food products contain high fructose corn syrup, a processed
sweetener and preservative made by corn starch which is one of the highly addictive
sweetener additive along with aspartame which is also found in diet coke and other
diet drinks. The reason why many find sweetened drinks or foods like these addictive
is because of the human tongues high sweet receptors which are incapable of
handling and adapting to such high consumption of these products making people
want more (Cambell, 2015). Aspartame in vast amounts was reported by the food

and drug association to be one of the worst food additives or sweeteners to have
existed causing many adverse reactions to food additives causing seizures and other
health implications (Mercola, 2011).
The demand for organic foods has slowly been increasing over the years. Organic
foods do not contain pesticides, herbicides antibiotics growth hormones or any other
unnatural substances which helps the foods to grown. Many people choose to eat
these products because of their personal beliefs as well as health issues that may be
affected by the unnatural food preservatives or additives added in most non organic
food products (Honkanen et al., 2006).
Food standard agencies have recently added the traffic light food labelling system to
have at the front of food packages. This idea is put in place to give the public a
quicker way of viewing how good or bad an item of food is at a glance and makes
choosing healthier food easier. The redder labels the higher the sugar, fat and salt it
contains. The greener the labels a product has means that it is a healthier choice
(NHS Choices, 2015). In a recent study customers buying food at a supermarket or
canteen where more inclined to choosing the greener labelled products over the less
healthier options. Choosing the healthy option was an important factor to these
subjects during their purchases and was made even simpler with the help of the
labels (Sonnenberg et al., 2013). Along with these traffic light systems they also
provide a percentage of how much of recommended daily intake is within that certain
product (British Nutrition Foundation, 2015).
Legal requirement for food to be labelled with either contents, nutritional value and
on alcoholic beverages they should provide percentage of alcohol. If any items are
sold without this labelling prosecutions of fines will be made to that person liable

(Food Labelling and Standards Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food, 1996).
Most food and drink products have their ingredients listed and also their nutritional
condense and calorific amounts all apart from alcoholic beverages. These drinks
only include very few ingredients to tell customers possible allergies, alcohol
percentages or harmful substances like sulphates. The reason why beer, wines or
spirit drinks do not have this nutritional information is because they are not nutritious
at all, so in theory there is no point in putting these sorts of labels on drinks (Nestle,
2010).
It is important to make sure for increasing health benefits to go for the healthier
options, by looking at the green labels at the front of packaging this can be made
simpler. Reading the backs of food labels to see what is really inside the products
and what it could do to influence change in health. Keeping an eye on how many
red products are consumed to help attain a healthy weight and keep cholesterol
levels down.
Reference list
Branen, L.A., Davidson, M., Salminen, S. and Thorngate, J. (2001) Food Additives .
(2nd ed.) New York: Marcel Dekker Inc.
British Nutrition Foundation (2015) Looking at Labels. [Online]
Available from: https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/healthyeating/labels.html
Campbell, A. (2015) Food Additives Making You Fat. [Online] 12 February 2015.
Available from: http://hubpages.com/health/4-Addictive-Food-Additives-PreventingYou-From-Losing-Weight
Food Labelling and Standards Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food (1996) Food Labelling Regulations 1996. London: Legislations.
GOV (2015) Food Labelling and Packaging. [Online]
Available from: https://www.gov.uk/food-labelling-and-packaging/overview
Honkanen, P., Verplanken, B. and OLSEN, S.O. (2006) Ethical Values and Motives
Driving Organic Food Choice . Consumer Behaviour . Vol. 5: 420-430.

Mercola (2011) Aspartame: By Far the Most Dangerous Substance Added to Most
Foods Today. [Online] 06 November 2011.
Available from: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/06/aspartam
e-most-dangerous-substance-added-to-food.aspx [accessed 08 January 2016].
Mick, D.G., Pettigrew, S. and Pechmann, C. (2012) Transformative Consumer
Research for Personal and Collective Well-being . London: Routledge.
Nestle, M. (2010) Nutrition labeling of wine, beer, and spirits: a regulatory morass.
[Online] 06 November 2010.
Available from: http://www.foodpolitics.com/2010/11/nutrition-labeling-of-wine-beerand-spirits-a-regulatory-morass/
NHS Choices (2015) Food Labels. [Online]
Available from: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/food-labelling.aspx [acc
essed 08 January 2016].
Sonnenberg, L., Gelsomin, E., Levy, D.E., Riis, J., Barraclough, S. and Thorndike,
A.N. (2013) A traffic light food labeling intervention increases consumer awareness
of health and healthy choices at the point-of-purchase. Elsevier. Vol. 57, No. 4: 253257.