Making Sense of Food Labels

https://simplafyi.com/2017/04/reading-food-labels/

To make informed choices about the food we eat, we need labels to be simple, consistent, and accurate.Unfortunately, that's often not the case. Today's food labels are frequently confusing and sometimes misleading. Commonly used terms, such as "healthy" and "natural" for example, have no one official definition. And even the integrity of organic products, which have strict standards, is under threat: The Department of Agriculture recently declared carrageenan, a seaweed-derived thickening agent, to be an acceptable ingredient in foods marketed as "organic"- despite the National Oganic Standardds Board's 2016 vote to ban it.Organic. Fresh. Natural. They all sound healthful enough, but when it comes to claims on food labels, you practically need a glossary to keep track of what means what ( and what means nothing). Here's a guide to a few of the best and worst food labels now in rotation.

A Few Good Labels

• USDA Organic
• This easy-to-spot seal means that at least 95 percent of the ingredients in a given item are certified organic- for example, they're produced without the use of synthetic fertilizers, most pesticides, or generally engineered crops. And Agriculture has no organic standard for fish.

• No Antibiotics (plus USDA Process Verified)
• The widespread use of antibiotics in farm animals encourages the growth of drug-resistant "superbugs" that can infect humans. A "Raised Without Antibiotics Administered" claim on meat and poultry indicated that the animals from which the food came received no antibiotics during its lifetime. Ideally, that statement should be accompanied by the "USDA Process Verified" seal, which means the agency has confirmed that the producer is doing what it says it is. Beware of sound-alike lables that aren't approved by the USDA, like "antibiotic free" and "no antibiotic residues." To learn more, go to NotInMyFood.org

• Animal Welfare Approved
• This label ensures that chickens, cows, giats, rabbits, sheep, turkeys, and other animals raised for meat, dairy, or egg products were treated humanely from birth to slaughter- for example, by being given access to asture. Only family farmers and cooperative groups of family farms can be AWA certified. Another good (though slightly less rigorous) option is "Certified Humane Raised and Handled." Like the AWA label, it was developed by a team that included animal scientists and veterinarians, and it applies to more than family farms. Both labels guarantee that the animals didn't receive antibodies unless they were sick. 

HOW CR HAS YOUR BACK
We have endoresed the Food Labeling Modernization Act, which would create a simple and standarized way for companies to put nutrition information on the front of packaged foods. This system would use intutive symbols, such as stars or traffic lights, to highlight the overall health value of foods. The bill would also crack down on misleading marketing terms.
We're also calling on the USDA to heed the recommendations of experts who carefully detemine which ingredients should be permitted in organic food.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
Contact your lawmakers at congress.gov and ask them to support the Food Labeling Modernization Act. And take action to protect ogranic food standards at CR.org/protectorganic.

Read more about Making Sense of Food Labels:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2013/08/making-sense-of-food-labels/index.htm