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  The Society for Consumer Advocates and Mavens

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FOOD LABEL LIES

Despite the food labeling law the food industry may still get away with deceiving consumers about ingredients! For example, spaghetti sauce with mushrooms may contain very few mushrooms. Cereals supposedly full of fruit may have very little fruit. Healthy-sounding cereal names may contain no fruit but fruit juice instead!

Whole wheat bread may contain virtually undetectable amounts of whole wheat which in no way supports how it may be advertised or promoted in big letters on the package label as being full of whole wheat.

Waffles and pancakes may be loaded with fake fruit, fruit juices and flavoring with little if any REAL fruit!

If the main ingredients advertised on the front of the package label are not at the top of the list of ingredients on the back of the package, then chances are you may not be getting what is being advertised or promoted on the front of the package!

Some other misleading boasts are claims that products consist of vegetables, whole wheat or bran when they actually have very little, or boasts of the products being low in sugar, sodium and fat when they are not.

"Ultra" fruit may mean no fruit at all and "lightly sweetened" may mean the product contains 20% sugar!

Big fat, plump ingredients, like fruits and vegetables, displayed on the front of the package may only mean the product is "flavored" with few if any truly healthy ingredients!

If a product is labeled as "flavored" there is possibly few, if any, REAL ingredients in the product! For example, a "banana flavored" product may have little real banana in it. Or "flavored raspberry" juice may contain more lemon juice than any real raspberry juice even though the product labels may incinuate the products are loaded with REAL banana and raspberry ingredients. "Flavored" is essentially a meaningless term when it comes to what the products' REAL ingredients are!

"Naturally flavored" may not mean the product is healthy! For example, lard is a natural ingredient and is not considered a healthy ingredient. Natural ingredients do not exclude the use of artificial ingredients either. To U.S. government regulators the use of the word "natural" to advertise or promote a food product only means there may be no added color. synthetic substances or flavor. "Natural" may only refer to how the product is made or processed and may have nothing to do with the product's ingredients like you may like to think. Also, to date, words like "smart" and "wholesome" used to advertise or promote food products are not even defined by the U.S. Foood And Drug Administration (FDA).

Foods and drinks labeled as "healthy" may be low in fat and sodium but, to date, there is no limit as to how much sugar the product may contain and still be allowed to be labeled as "healthy"!

"33% Less Fat" as advertised or promoted on a product may still mean the product is high in saturated fat!

"Light" is a term that may be used to mislead especially if "light" is not followed by the term "1/3 fewer calories" which certifies that the product is about 1/2 the fat of a similar food. Otherwise, the term "light" or "lite" may not signify the product is healthy or dietary at all.

Misleading packaging claims may take years for the FDA to correct. For example, Florida orange juice in the product "name" may mean it contains South American orange juice too! Sausage and pasta you thought was imported from Italy because of its Italian-looking packaging may actually be made in the USA. Even yogurt on closer inspection may be more pudding than yogurt despite the product's yogurt name! The list of food label lies seems endless as profit may get priority over ethics!

SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCES: CNBC-TV STEALS AND DEALS 10/8/96 and 8/2/95 and NUTRITION ACTION HEALTH LETTER OCTOBER 1996

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