Food packaging is a potent means for marketing specialists to reach more customers. While the latter expect a package to contain an explicit information about its content, marketing experts include the information which most people would appreciate. Every second product on the supermarket shelves is exceptionally natural and organic which certainly is far away from the truth. Labeling is not about informing consumers anymore; it is a pure advertising which makes indifferent customers believe that they consume what they want. But what exactly do we want from food?
People who examine labels too rigorously frequently have conditions which require a constant diet. Such markers as “fat-free”, “sugar-free”, and “gluten-free”. Nevertheless, products low in fats may contain quite a lot of sugar, items for diabetics are sweetened with alternative carbohydrates, and gluten-free whole grain products have less fiber than regular grain. Perhaps, these products are very helpful to patients with diabetes or gluten intolerance, but for everybody else they are just marketing tricks.
Besides being healthy, we all want to keep fit. Examining labels, some people count how many calories these products “cost”. However, we will hardly become slimmer buying everything refined; lack of essential fats and protein is striding in leaps and bounds to those who like highly processed food. In fact, labels contain numerous tricks which make consumers think that products are extremely low in calories. In most cases, it is not true.
Another frequent package label is “organic”. All consumers strive to sustainable eating, and multinational corporations try to provide such an impression. Perhaps, too many packages at the supermarket are marked as organic even though it is hardly possible. Organic is more immanent to small farmers but not large industrialized companies.