Looking behind the label

January 4th, 2012

For those consumers who are concerned about the ethics of what they buy the Ecologist recently published a free guide to what’s not on the label of leading brands, which is available on its website.

The guide highlights ethical, health and nutrition issues it finds with products such as Kellogg’s Nutri-grain bars, Pot Noodle and Lucozade and companies such as Nivea and Colgate.

The issues it has with Nutri-grain bars include that the product packaging states there’s wholesome ingredients in every bar, while taking a closer look at the label reveals the bar is only 8% fruit and 34% cereal, with the rest made up of fillers, such as sugar, fat and bulking agents. It is also critical of some of the ingredients used in Nivea products, such as oestrogenic parabens, contact allergens and penetration enhancers, which can trigger allergic reactions with repeated exposure.

While there’s good information in the guide for consumers who do have ethical concerns, it also comes with a heavy dose of advertising. Free publications are often used as an avenue for advertising and the guide is also filled with ads for eco alternatives. If that’s your cup of tea the guide might be of interest. However for many consumers the price of eco products may be outside their budget’s reach. When we surveyed the cost of buying eco-friendly products against non-ecological alternatives we found that they cost consumers an average of 60%. For more on labelling, and to find out what rules food manufacturers must follow when labelling the quantity of key ingredients in their products, turn to page 403 of the December/January issue of Consumer Choice.