Today, many terms like eco, healthy, and natural are splashed around freely and they don’t
necessarily pertain to what the product is really made from.
One thing to remember when you go to the supermarket is that each and every manufacturer wants you to buy their product. They spend vast amounts of money on marketing and labelling and will use the means they think necessary to sell you their product.
So what does it all mean and can we believe everything we read on labels?
There are a couple of ways that you can check what you’re really getting. In more and more countries it is becoming a legal requirement to display all ingredients on the label of the product so that you can read what is inside before you buy it. These ingredient lists are in order from most volume to least in the product. While a lot of the time the main ingredient is water, the majority of ingredients are chemicals you probably don’t recognize the names of and then, for those natural and eco labeled products, the very last one might be of botanical or natural origins.
The other way is through legal certification programs like the ones listed below.
Fairtrade International: a global organisation working to secure better conditions for farmers and workers.
USDA Organic (US Department of Agriculture): practice standards that encompass how food is grown and produced.
Cruelty Free International: consumer products that are not tested on animals.
Rainforest Alliance Certified: signifies that environment, economic and social sustainability has been attained.
Gluten Free Certified: products are tested and assured not to contain gluten.
B Corporation: companies that are certified to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
Certified Sustainable Seafood (MSC Marine Stewardship Council): ensures fish are from well-managed sources.
There are more and more ways to know what you’re consuming. It’s important to know these things, firstly for your health and also for the sustainability of our environment.
