Food Companies Lying with False Labels, ECO Study Finds
We all have our little luxuries that make us feel better about how we treat our bodies and give us some sense of satisfaction for making healthier choices. For some it’s a bottle of authentic olive oil made with olives picked right out of the gardens of Tuscany, whereas for the rest of us, it’s words like ‘homemade’ or ‘artisanal’ slapped onto food labels that suck us into buying certain products. But are food companies that use such marketing gimmicks lying to us to increase sales? We regret to say this, but the answer is yes.
False Marketing Gimmicks
European Consumer Organization (ECO) published a shocking report earlier this month which revealed that most manufacturers use mislabeling as a marketing technique to deceive the public by saying that their products are ‘homemade’ or ‘artisanal’. Such words often trick the consumers into thinking that the foods are free of additives and preservatives, and are made of fresh fruits and whole grains. In reality, most of these ‘homemade’ products have undergone the same manufacturing process as the rest of the lot, and don’t contain any additional health benefits.
ECO cautioned lawmakers to tighten food labelling regulations so that manufacturers can’t use deceptive marketing practices for the sake of making profits. Although products claiming to be artisanal or homemade mention all ingredients such as fats, preservatives and sodium content on the back of the packaging in small fonts, there is no restriction on using misleading claims and photos on the front.
The detailed report called Food Labels: Tricks of the Trade mentions three words that are most commonly used by food manufacturers to increase sales volume: natural, artisanal and traditional. Such claims evoke an automatic psychological response from consumers, who associate the three words with the idea that the food is made in a small-scale kitchen instead of a large factory.
Deceptive Marketing
This marketing trick is popularly used because it actually works. Consumers are becoming more health conscious by the day and want to invest in products that contain less of the ingredients that are bad for them, i.e. sugar, salt, saturated fats, processed carbs and preservatives. The report’s investigation showed that many of the products labelled ‘natural’ or ‘traditional’ contained additives and industrial dyes in their recipes, making them as processed as other products in the market.
Almost all packaged foods use some form of deceptive marketing to lure in customers. One overlooked example of mislabeling widely used by manufacturers is the picture used on the front of the label. Many products will show colorful fruits like berries, apples and oranges whereas in reality, they may only contain small traces of preserved fruits or simply artificial flavors and colors.
Manufacturers of savory foods like pasta also use false labeling using words like ‘whole grain’ when in reality, the product may contain 50% or less of whole grains but look deceivingly similar to pasta that is made from 100% whole grains.
Truth Behind ‘Healthy’ Foods
The report mentions various examples of foods being marketed as healthy when they are actually not. In Norway, a popular meat brand sells its turkey fillets with a misleading label that reads: all-natural turkey. When the investigators looked more carefully into the ingredient list, they discovered that the fillets only contained 53% turkey whereas the rest was simply additives and chicken.
An Italian maker of artichoke soup boldly claimed on its packaging that it only uses ‘natural ingredients’ in its product, when in reality, the soup only contained 2.7% artichokes, whereas the rest was simply flavorings and preservatives. Popular dairy brands in Europe also use photos of colorful fruits on their flavored yogurts and drinks but only contain 2% or less of real fruits.
Researchers wrote in the report that manufacturers often justify higher product prices with vague marketing terms like ‘natural’, ‘artisanal’ or ‘homemade’ which trick us into believing that we’re buying better quality. ECO stressed that there is a need for better laws that prevent manufacturers from using such terms and require them to be honest with their consumers.
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