Here are some of the biggest reasons why it’s so important to label your food. Before we go into the article you may want to see eco friendly labels.
Stay Healthy
One of the main reasons it’s so critical to label your food has to do with knowing its composition it. You need to know what’s in your food. From the calories to the nutritional facts, you want to have a good understanding of what you’re putting into your body. Having this information is essential to know what you’re eating and whether or not it’s good for you. Having labels allows you to monitor what you’re putting in your body to ensure you’re not nutritionally deficient in any essential minerals and vitamins. This is especially true when you are talking about vitamin D and iron. You can get a good idea of how healthy your diet is by looking at food labels and adding up the values to ensure you’re eating a healthy and balanced diet.
It Keeps You Safe
Another reason why food labels are so important is that they can keep consumers safe. Each year, nearly 600 million people get sick from eating contaminated food. This includes food that’s contaminated with bacteria and viruses and even toxins. Having food labels can provide warnings and different ways that you are supposed to store and use food products. For instance, having to cook the food at a certain temperature or having to refrigerate it. This is essential information that consumers need to know when it comes to keeping the food safe to eat.
Helps To Ensure You Are Getting Authentic Products
Another big reason for food labeling has to do with it helping eliminate counterfeit products. When you buy food that has the requisite labeling on it, you are getting something that has been approved by the government. You want to know that what you are putting in your body is the real deal. These food labels let you know exactly that.
Detect Potentially Harmful Ingredients
Many people can have negative allergic reactions to all kinds of food. These reactions affect as many as 10 to 25% of the entire population in developed countries. Some of the more common ingredients that can cause negative reactions to include peanuts, milk, wheat, and tree nuts. If you aren’t fully aware of the ingredients in a product, you could find yourself eating a product that exposes you to ingredients that you’re allergic to. Having food labels readily accessible makes it easy to avoid ingredients that you are allergic to.
Keeps You From Wasting Food
When you read your food labels properly, you aren’t going to have to throw out nearly as much food. After all, you will be storing the food properly. This means that you can get a good idea of how long you have to eat certain foods and it can keep you from getting sick from eating food that’s past its expiration date. That being said, these dates can lead to more wastefulness when it comes to the food you throw out. In fact, in the EU, as many as 10% of all food that is thrown out is linked to expiration dates. Properly educating the consumers and the various pieces of the supply chain can help to curb this waste.
Support Local Food Producers
Another big reason labels are so important has to do with the fact that it helps to support local food producers. After all, these labels typically have the origin of the food listed on them. Because of this, you are going to be able to attract more locally conscious consumers by adding it. This can add value to the product and help to generate more sales for local producers. There was a study that was conducted by EBRD and FAO and they found that 9 products with geographic labels on them increased the total price of the product by as much as 20 to 50%. A lot of consumers are fully aware of the geographical origins of their food and they seek out food from specific origins due to its perceived quality.
