European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 02, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Juilu a sep How much they do and Don t say sugar and other sweeteners was recently renamed super Golden Crisp. Celeste Clark a spokesman Lor Kellogg said company policy prohibited the exact disclosure of ingredients and she would not comment on the analysis by the Public interest group. She said that frosted flakes was renamed because Consumers were already referring to the product that Way and that Honey smacks was changed because Honey was already a Flavouring and we wanted to make that Judith Klein a spokesman for general foods which owns . Post said super sugar Crisp became super Golden Crisp in part because of a recognition that there s a sensitivity to the word it is a marketing tool to give a modern image to an of product she added. Another Eye catching facet of a food Label is what is known in the Industry As a burst any Circle or Banner with adjectives describing the product. Contains no artificial flavor is a typical burst item. Low calorie a Lent and Low cholesterol Are others. That s classical advertising Sacharow said. You play up something thai makes you seem new York to Lect the Federal government has attempted to develop precise definitions for some Labelling terms. However unless Consumers Are aware of the standards by which these definitions were arrived at they might still be confused. Low calorie for example. Is defined by the Fra As a product that has no More than 40 calories per serving or 0.4 calories per Gram while reduced calorie Means a product that has one third fewer calories than it would have in its Standa d form. A reduced calorie food therefore might contain More calories than a of that is naturally Low in calories. A company can Call meat lean or Low fat if the meat has 25 percent less of either calories fat sodium cholesterol or breading. The Standard of comparison can be the leading Brand of the particular product a government Market Sample an Industry Standard set by the department or the company s full fat full calorie regular sodium level or regular breading Content version of the same product. Consumers unfamiliar with these definitions May ump to unfounded conclusions about the health value of their purchases according to Bonnie Liebman. Director of nutrition for the Center for science in the Public interest. Even lean or Light sausage she said gets about 70 percent of its calories from fat. Nutritionists suggest that a healthful diet derives no More than 35 percent of total calories from fat another source of confusion for Consumers is restrictive advertising. Foods promoted As having no flavors often contain artificial colors and preservatives. Foods described As sugar free May be free Only of sucrose and contain other High calorie sweeteners such As Honey or Corn syrup. Careful reeding of food labels should begin with the Back and Side labels and with the serving size. Although the Fra has periodically considered mandating certain serving sizes to certain foods there Are no proposals on the table now Stencer said. Years ago manufacturers tried to make the Servings As Large As possible to give the impression of Large amounts of protein and vitamins. Recently however serving sizes have been becoming smaller. The result is that products seem to have fewer calories and less fat and sodium. Bread manufacturers for example have reduced the suggested serving size from two slices to one slice thereby reducing the number of calories listed on the Label. And three years ago the Campbell soup company reduced its serving size from 10 ounces to 8 ounces because people Are eating and most bowls hold 8 ounces according to Scott Rombach a spokesman Lor the company. The size of the can did not change however and where each can once held two Servings the Label now says it holds 2v? Servings with Cor of spending reductions in calorie and sodium Levels per serving. Tho Law also allows manufacturers to use what is known As Allexi Labelling Permuting an ingredient list to read contains one or More of the following and leaving the consumer to guess what is in the product. It can say contains Sunflower seed Oil. Coconut Oil and or Palm Oil said Joel Johnson an aide to Metzenbaum who has proposed legislation to eliminate such wording. The first of these oils is polyunsaturated. While the others contain saturated fats. A consumer cannot make an informed Choice with a Label like that he said. Currently for example. The presence of sulfite. A class of preservatives to which Many americans Iare allergic and that have led to several deaths need not be listed a d often Are not. The Only food colouring that pro is be listed by name is yellow Dye number 5. Because Many people Are allergic to it. Others must be listed under the generic term artificial although there Are nearly 2,000 artificial flavors on the Market and irom 3 to 20 in most foods Only a handful of these Are on the government s list of what must be printed on a Label Jacobson said. Consumer de Roceles manufacturers and government officials agree that no end to the confusion is in sight. The Center for science in the Public interest periodically proposes changes in product labels us h As replacing the list of nutrients with a pie Chart indicating the percentage of calories in the food that comes from fat. Carbohydrates and so Lorth. And requiring the disclosure of All additives and preservatives. But the likelihood of those changes being adopted As Law in the near future is Jacobson said. Similarly the food Industry is expected to lobby against Metzenbaum s proposal to require manufacturers to list the amounts of sodium potassium and fat. There is no end in sight to the debate Over who is responsible Lor the clarity of food labels. There Are three Spencer said. The manufacturers Are trying to put information on labels that will attract customers the Fra s role is to make sure that information is truthful and Consumers must be informed about their needs and they most act on but some argue that labels have become so complicated that simply being informed is no enough. Somebody who has a . In chemistry can know a lot about Loo i irom a Label Jacobson said. Someone should be looking out Tor everyone Hewner 2, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 15
