Mandatory Labeling
Mandatory labeling is mandated in most developed nations,
and increasingly in developing nations, especially for food
products, e.g. "Grade A" meats.
With regard to food and drugs, mandatory labeling has been a major
battleground between consumer advocates and corporations since the
late 19th century. Mandatory labeling or labeling is the requirement of consumer products to
state their ingredients or components.
Because of past scandals involving deceptive labeling, countries
like the United States and Canada require most processed foods to
have a Nutrition Facts table on the mandatory labeling, and the table's
formatting and content must conform to strict guidelines. The
European Union equivalent is the slightly different Nutrition
Information table, which may also be supplemented with standardized
icons indicating the presence of allergens.
The genetic modification of food has led to one of the most
persistent and divisive debates about the mandatory labeling.
Advocates of such labeling claim that the consumer should make the
choice whether to expose themselves to any possible health risk from
consuming such foods. Detractors point to well-controlled studies
that conclude genetically modified food is safe, and point out that
for many commodity products, the identity of the grower and the
custody chain are not known.
Voluntary labeling and co-marketing of products deemed desirable is
another matter usually carried out by entirely different means, e.g.
Slow Food. There has been increased regulatory interest in
substantiating these claims, and in some jurisdictions, food labels
require regulatory approval before use.
An interesting halfway is those labels that are considered mandatory
by one buying population and effectively preclude purchase if they
are not there, e.g. kosher, vegan, and the aforementioned GMO-free
label now seen on many organic products.
|
