LI Food Council Nutrition Label Presentation Re-Cap and Related Links
We spoke about developing a level of trust with your consumer to build product loyalty, and integrity in your brand. I used the example of Quest Bars and how they recently changed ingredients (including adding a known allergen: corn), and the nutritional profile of the bar (doubling the fat content) without a notice on the packaging alerting their consumers.
If you want to see an example of a company doing it right, see the attached photo. This company changed their packaging, but wanted to made it clear to the consumer that the ingredients had not changed.
I mentioned corn is a known food allergen. It is… nutritionists and doctors use an Elimination Diet to determine food allergies and sensitivities. Corn is one of the excluded food items. However, it is not considered label-worthy by the FDA at this time.
The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA), required that foods be labeled by January 1, 2006 with the following 8 allergens deemed as “major food allergens”: Milk, Eggs, Fish, Crustacean Shellfish, Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Wheat, and Soybeans. Sesame may soon be added as #9. I suspect Corn will follow.
With so many people being more health conscious, and having allergy issues, it makes sense to give information to the consumer that makes it easy to trust your product and recommend it to others.
If anyone wants to go over understanding nutrition labels, and know how to check for accuracy, contact me. I can help with consulting on product claims as well.
The requirements for ingredient listing, and guidelines for related health statements, are supplied in the links below.
