We need food labels to inform us of important information such as the ingredients contained in the food and how nutritious and healthy they are. Food labels go a long way toward helping us make healthy and informed decisions about the food we consume. Here are six reasons why food labelling is so important. Contact a printing service if you need food labels or branded stickers for your business.
Health
Food labels give you information on the composition of the particular food in the packaging such as calories, fats, vitamins, and minerals. This fundamental information helps you decide whether the food will be good for your health or not. For example, if there is a large amount of sugar listed on the label and you are trying to cut down on your sugar intake you may want to look for an alternative.
Labels can help you monitor your micronutrient intake in order to avoid common deficiencies like Vitamin D and iron. If you are trying to lose weight they can help you monitor the number of calories and saturated fats you consume.
If you want to follow a balanced diet labels can help you limit your intake of unhealthy ingredients like excess salt and sugar.
Paying attention to the information on food labels can help you prevent illness and avoid the onset of serious diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Safety
Every year food contaminated with toxic chemicals, parasites, viruses, and bacteria is responsible for more than 600 million people getting sick and 420,000 dying. Labels contain important information and warnings about safe ways to store and cook the food contained in the packaging. This labeling is extremely important because it ensures that consumers are kept safe.
Prevents Fraud
One of the main aims of food labeling is to prevent fraud by food sellers who deliberately mislead consumers with false claims on packaging. Internationally acclaimed and guaranteed labels ensure that when you buy chocolate you are actually getting chocolate and not some concoction falsely represented as chocolate.
Avoids the Risk of Harmful Reactions
The list of ingredients on food labels ensures that consumers are able to identify ingredients that may cause harmful reactions. 10% to 25% of the populations in developed countries have allergies that make them susceptible to food reactions. Some of the most common allergenic foods include peanuts, milk, eggs, soybeans, fish, tree nuts, wheat, and crustaceans. Food labels inform consumers about the ingredients in food to prevent someone from mistakenly eating a known allergen that could cause an allergic reaction, some of which can be very serious and even deadly. Food labels help to avoid this from happening.
Prevents Food Wastage
When read correctly food labels can help you save money by knowing how long the food can be kept before throwing it out. Expiry dates on labels with ‘best before’ and ‘use-by’ dates can be confusing and lead to more food being wasted than necessary. Approximately 10% of all food wastage in the EU can be contributed to misinterpretation of date marking. Educating customers on the purpose of date marking can help prevent food wastage to a large extent.
Food Origin
Knowing where the food comes from by checking the label can help you support your local producers. On the other hand, where food originates from can attract the attention of customers and add more value to a product. For example, food labels that indicate the country of origin like Columbian coffee from Columbia, Manchego cheese from Spain or Darjeeling tea from India helps to attribute the characteristics such as taste and quality of the food to geographic locations famous for producing such foods. According to a study by FAO and EBRD, nine products that contained indication labels increased the final price by 20% to 50% compared to other like products. This is because consumers tend to link quality to traditional geographical origins.
As you reach for your favourite snack or food the labels can easily be ignored as just one more boring piece of information vying for your attention. However, labels contain powerful information that can help consumers take control of their health and businesses to increase their end profits. You may not want to go all out and be called a health nut but you at least want to know whether the ingredients in your food are authentic and not some fake conglomeration of chemicals and fillers. Trusted food labels can help you with that.
