Maurice Hanssen – E for Additives (страница 3)
Food has to be described in a way which is not misleading, using, where there is one, the name prescribed by law, and if there is not, then a customary name, and failing that a precise enough description to inform the purchaser of its true nature and, if needed, a description of its use A made-up name cannot be used instead of the proper name of the food.
‘Flavour’ is a word that does not mean quite what it seems to because if a product is, for example, ‘strawberry flavour’ then it need not contain any strawberry at all. If it is ‘strawberry flavoured’ then a significant part of its flavour must be from strawberries, and if it is ‘strawberry’ then it is made with whole strawberries. This is a rule of thumb which is not enshrined in law, and a number of manufacturers and Local Authorities are of the view that both words ‘flavour’ and ‘flavoured’ are themselves misleading, and a proper description of the product which does not contain any of the designated substance would be ‘artificially flavoured’. Until this is tested in the High Court, or a new regulation is made, the consumer is left with an uncertain and misleading situation.
‘No added sugar’ is another area of potential misinformation. Because many people are worried that too much sugar will cause them to put on excess weight they look out for products which are sugar-free or contain no added sugar. This description is applied even when the food contains a very large quantity of naturally occurring sugars. An example is jam made without added sugar but with concentrated apple or pear juice containing a naturally high level of sugar. Sugar is being interpreted by certain manufacturers as being just the use of sucrose (table sugar). Other sugars, such as lactose and fructose, are sometimes also included in products which are said to have no added sugar.
Certain diet products are equally misleading; for example, there is a diet bar on sale which has sugar as its second largest ingredient. There is also a tendency for manufacturers to say ‘no added colour’ or ‘no preservatives’ or ‘no artificial ingredients’, all of which may be true but does not alter the fact that the food itself is of low nutritional worth. There is no substitute for reading the ingredient list.
Date Marking
Date marking is now required on most pre-packed foods (with a few exceptions, such as frozen foods, wine and vinegar) unless they have a shelf-life of at least 18 months. Even products with a very long shelf-life may be marked, but this is not mandatory. This is expressed as
• A best before date (day, month, year) plus storage conditions (if necessary).
• If the food has a ‘life’ of between 3 months and 19 months, a best before end date (month, year).
• If the food has a ‘life’ of between 6 weeks and 3 months, a best before date (day, month) plus storage conditions (if necessary).
• If the food is perishable and is intended for consumption within 6 weeks of being packed, a sell by date (day, month) plus storage conditions and a storage period after purchase.
There is no reason why you should not buy overdue products, especially if they are reduced in price, because the onus is on the shopkeeper to provide goods which live up to the quality of their description, in other words they must not be bad or ‘off’. With the longer time datings you are safe in buying goods that are near the end of their expiry date if the shop is clean and well maintained. However if such a product has deteriorated, even if bought at a special price, your legal rights are not affected and you should complain first of all to the shop manager then, if no satisfaction is obtained, to your local Trading Standards Officer, whom you can locate through the Town Hall. It is often preferable, though, to write a nice letter, fully documented, with a sample, to the Managing Director of the company concerned who will often, for the sake of goodwill (and most of the food companies are very jealous of their good reputation), refund your cost and may even give you something extra besides. However, if you are on the make, beware, because most manufacturers keep very accurate records of complainants and get wise to the person who frequently finds a dead mouse in a meat pie.
Foods for special nutritional purposes are subject to the provisions of an EEC Directive which strictly controls all claims and declarations in respec of infant, diabetic, slimming and other foods which purport to be for a group of people with special nutritional needs. There is a problem in that some excellent foods which have a nutritional purpose may not, in the future, be able to declare it without a Medicines Licence! For example, a bran based breakfast cereal may not be able to say that it ‘helps constipation’, but it can say ‘helps to keep you regular’ as that is not a medical claim. Too often we are seeing legislation which is designed for consumer protection which effectively shields the consumer from the information needed to make an informed decision. It should surely be sufficient with regard to most claims that labels and advertising are decent, honest and truthful.
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Claims
The COMA and NACNE reports on what we should eat for a healthy diet include in their recommendations the view that we should cut down on our total fat intake, have a relatively high proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids (which are the sort of fats that you have in oils like sunflower, safflower, soya and corn) and consume less animal and dairy fat. This is because such a dietary change is thought to be good for the heart. However, the manufacturer is not allowed by law to tell you that! Before any claims relating to polyunsaturated fatty acids can be made the food has to contain at least 35 per cent of fat by weight. In that fat at least 45 per cent of the fatty acids must be polyunsaturated and not more than 25 per cent saturated.
The claim has to be accompanied by the words ‘low in saturates’ or ‘low in saturated fatty acids’ and the food must be marked with a declaration in grammes per 100 grammes or millilitres of the food stating the amount of fat or oil and the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (which are cis, cis-methylene interrupted polyunsaturated fatty acids) and also the amount of saturated fatty acids. Each pan of the declaration has to be given equal prominence.
If, in addition, the claim is made that it is low in cholesterol, then the food must not contain more than 0.005 per cent of cholesterol and it must be possible to make polyunsaturated fatty acid claims. As in the former case there can be no expressed or implied suggestion that such products are beneficial to health. You have to read the label carefully to see that such a claim is being made if you want to choose truly polyunsaturated margarines such as Flora or, from health stores, the very desirable Vitaquell which contains no animal or dairy ingredients and which has not been hardened by the hydrogenation process.
In the USA sensible and accurate claims for reduced cholesterol foods are allowed as are true statements about the advantages of polyunsaturates. So long as such claims are well controlled they could help many people to change their diet for the better and lessen the risk of heart disease.
Vitamins and Minerals
The Labelling of Food Regulations specify in two schedules the vitamins and minerals for which claims can be made. The word ‘claim’ has a specific meaning. Vitamins and minerals which are not in the schedule cannot be mentioned at all on a food product except in the nutritional declaration, the name of the product (if it is a food supplement) and the list of ingredients. Anything additional to these three places becomes a claim.
Where it is claimed that the food is a
If the claim is confined to named vitamins or minerals then every vitamin or mineral named must be specified in one of the schedules and is then subject to the same requirements as before. The names used in declaring the vitamins must be the names in the first column of the schedules, with or without the words that appear in three cases in brackets.
The names for other vitamins are also specified by law, and are: vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin E and vitamin K. The purpose of this is to prevent people making claims for the existence of vitamins that are not recognized by science, such as vitamin B17 and vitamin F.
The following are the two schedules: