Food labelling is imperative. It is not only a legal requirement for food producers, but it helps consumers make informed decisions when buying food and allows them to store and consume the food in a safe manner. In this read, we are going to take a closer look at the importance of food labelling for consumers. Check with a printing company if your business need help with food labels or company stickers in general.
Stay Safe
Data shows that each year, over 600 million individuals become victims of consuming food contaminated with toxins, chemicals, viruses, and parasites. These cases are sometimes so severe that they lead to over 420,000 deaths yearly. Labels are a way to provide important information regarding the usage of a product, i.e, storage and cooking. This is all essential in keeping food safe.
Stay Healthy
Labels provide essential information including the product’s ingredients. This includes all the minerals, vitamins, fats, calories, etc. This information is vital in making sure that you are consuming the right kinds of food for your health. With labels, you’re able to monitor your micronutrient intake and avoid deficiencies such as the lack of Vitamin D and Iron.
In addition, you are able to monitor your weight by watching your intake of saturated fats, and calories and ensuring you consume a balanced diet. All these aspects help prevent illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, etc.
Avoid Products with Harmful Reactions
In developed countries, reactions to food items affect between 10 and 25 percent of the population. Foods that are notorious for allergic reactions include peanuts, tree nuts, crustaceans, fish, eggs, soybeans, and milk. Without the right knowledge of the ingredients in a food product, you may end up consuming something that results in a severe allergic reaction. With food labels, you are able to prevent such occurrences.
Avoid Purchasing Counterfeit Items
Fraud prevention is one of the primary roles of food labels. Without globally accepted labels, food producers and sellers may intentionally mislead consumers via false representation in regard to packaging. When you purchase a food item, you want to be guaranteed that it’s exactly what you expect.
Support the Local Food Producers
Most labels tell the origin of the product. Examples include Kona Coffee (USA), Manchego Cheese (Spain), Colombian Coffee (Colombia), and Darjeeling tea (India). These attract certain customers, providing higher value to the product and therefore to the producer. Most consumers usually identify typical and local food products to a specific region and attribute features like quality and taste to geographic locations. According to a study done by the FAO and ERBD, 9 products with labels indicating their origin experienced a rise of the final product by up to 50%. There’s no denying that most people tend to link food products’ quality to origins as well as traditions.
Avoid Food Wastage
When read properly, food labels can prevent you from disposing of good food. The date information on the labels allows you to tell the shelf life of a product. This is imperative as it also prevents you from consuming spoiled food. However, it is also important to note that ‘’Use By’’ and ‘’Best Before’’ can be confusing, resulting in food wastage. In the United Kingdom, around 10% of wasted food is linked to date marketing. As such, there is a need to educate both supply chain stakeholders and consumers to keep date marketing accurate and ultimately avoid food wastage.
Conclusion
It can be easy to overlook food labels are you purchase a food product. They tend to seem like the most boring aspects of a product that you don’t want to spend time reading. However, due to the above-mentioned reasons, it is important to read them every time you go out shopping.