History of Food Labeling

Introduction: The main legislation governing food labelling in Sri Lanka is the Food Act which is implemented by health authorities. Food labels provide information to help consumers make healthier and safe food choices. Objectives: To assess the compliance of health and nutrition claims of labels of non-alcoholic beverages with food labelling regulation Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in all 18 supermarkets in the Kandy Municipal Council Area. Non-alcoholic beverages were assessed. A judgmentally validated pre-tested checklist containing provisions of the labelling regulation was used as the study instrument. Data collection was done by four trained data collectors. Results: Of the 214 beverages assessed, 5.1% (n=11) did not have the common name in two languages. Claims or pictures to the effect that the beverage is recommended by medical practitioners or a professional association was present in 8.1% (n=19). Of the 56 milk products and health drinks, 8.9% (n=5) made claims that dietary fats benefit heart patients. Claim of food being an aid for slimming or weight reduction was found in 14% (n=9) of the 64 milk products, health drinks and green tea surveyed. Of the 36 beverages which made special claims, 30 (83%) did not have declarations that the natural food items also have the same characteristic. Conclusions: Labels of considerable proportions of beverages contravene the provisions of the food labelling regulation, indicating the importance of proper implementation of the regulation.

Introduction: The main legislation governing food labelling in Sri Lanka is the Food Act which is implemented by health authorities. Food labels provide information to help consumers make healthier and safe food choices. Objectives: To assess the compliance of health and nutrition claims of labels of non-alcoholic beverages with food labelling regulation Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in all 18 supermarkets in the Kandy Municipal Council Area. Non-alcoholic beverages were assessed. A judgmentally validated pre-tested checklist containing provisions of the labelling regulation was used as the study instrument. Data collection was done by four trained data collectors. Results: Of the 214 beverages assessed, 5.1% (n=11) did not have the common name in two languages. Claims or pictures to the effect that the beverage is recommended by medical practitioners or a professional association was present in 8.1% (n=19). Of the 56 milk products and health drinks, 8.9% (n=5) made claims that dietary fats benefit heart patients. Claim of food being an aid for slimming or weight reduction was found in 14% (n=9) of the 64 milk products, health drinks and green tea surveyed. Of the 36 beverages which made special claims, 30 (83%) did not have declarations that the natural food items also have the same characteristic. Conclusions: Labels of considerable proportions of beverages contravene the provisions of the food labelling regulation, indicating the importance of proper implementation of the regulation.

Many systems for classifying food products to adequately predict lower all-cause morbidity and mortality have been proposed as front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional labels. Although the efforts and advances that these systems represent for public health must be appreciated, as scientists involved in nutrition research and belonging to diverse Italian nutrition scientific societies, we would like to draw stakeholders' attention to the fact that some FOP labels risk being not correctly informative to consumers' awareness of nutritional food quality. The European Commission has explicitly called for such a nutrition information system to be part of the European "strategy on nutrition, overweight and obesity-related issues" to "facilitate consumer understanding of the contribution or importance of the food to the energy and nutrient content of a diet". Some European countries have adopted the popular French proposal Nutri-Score. However, many critical limits and inadequacies have been identified in this system. As an alternative, we endorse a new enriched informative label-the NutrInform Battery-promoted by the Italian Ministry of Health and deeply studied by the Center for Study and Research on Obesity, Milan University. Therefore, the present position paper limits comparing these two FOP nutritional labels, focusing on the evidence suggesting that the NutrInform Battery can help consumers better than the Nutri-Score system to understand nutritional information, potentially improving dietary choices. Level of evidence II. Evidence was obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomization.

Purpose: This paper reviews the literature on the country-of-origin (COO) effect in the context of organic food and develops suggestions for further research in this area. Research has investigated COO effects and consumer responses to organic food, but there is little research on the combination of the two. Design/methodology/approach: A narrative review of two research streams and their intersection, forming the basis for the development of a research agenda. Findings: There are few studies analysing the possible interaction between the effects of organic and COO on consumers’ food preferences and choices. In general, COO seems to lose impact when other quality cues are salient. This suggests a lower impact of COO for organic than for conventional food products. However, there is still no research on the possible impact of organic labelling in categories where products from a foreign country are able to demand a premium, and little is known about consumer preferences for different...

Bad dietary habits are among the main causes of increasing obesity and other health problems. According to the literature, information asymmetry and cognitive biases may lead to suboptimal decisions by individuals regarding food consumption. Many countries have implemented different forms of nutritional labelling in order to provide individuals with better information when making choices. We assess the Multiple Traffic Light (MTL) system, an alternative and simplified labelling format implemented in the UK. Although this system has been found to significantly improve consumer’s understanding of nutritional quality, evidence regarding its effect on actual choices is scarce and uncertain. In order to evaluate this format’s effectiveness on consumer decisions, we conduct a selection experiment with a particular sample: university students in a developing country. Our results show that the proposed nutritional labeling system has a significant positive effect on the nutritional quality ...

Nutrition security has been studied but rarely in the context of a developed economy. Furthermore, few studies have looked at how fluctuating produce process may influence nutrition security and how consumers cope with abrupt macroeconomic changes. Between 2014 and 2015, Canadian consumers saw produce prices jump by more than 25% in a year in some cases. This exploratory survey looks at socioeconomic factors and evaluates how price increases influence produce consumption and substitution. A total of 1007 respondents participated in a cross national survey over a two-week period. Results show that lower income households are more vulnerable than higher income respondents. Results also explore a few more behavioral factors such as where produce shopping occurs and how market data is gathered before purchases. Respondents who consult flyers and use apps are more likely to behave rationally and cope with changing prices. Some limitations are presented. And finally, future research thrusts related to produce price fluctuations and nutrition security are suggested. KEYWORDS Food security; fruits and vegetables; nutrition; produce; retail food prices Many studies have investigated how retail prices vary and how they may affect consumers, particularly in the developing world (Martin-Prevel et al., 2012). Macroeconomic factors such as foreign exchanges and currency value inconsistencies often abruptly influence retail price fluctuations, particularly prices of vegetables and fruits (Rodriguez-Feijoo, Rodriguez-Caro, & Gonzalez-Correa, 2015). Some food products are essential not only in making a market food secure but also in making nutrition securel. Good nutrition is key to positive growth and development in childhood and adolescence. Nonetheless, developed economies are known to not meet the daily requirements of vegetable and fruit consumption for a variety of reasons. Canadians normally do not consume the daily recommended amount prescribed by Health Canada (Bertrand, Thérien, & Cloutier, 2008). Canada is endowed with several natural resources and is considered to be one of the richest countries in the world. It is also one of the largest countries CONTACT Sylvain Charlebois

European Union (EU) policies have been evolving beyond the protection of consumers through food safety protocols to the promotion of healthy and sustainable diets. The European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy—the most recent step in this evolution—addresses challenges facing European agriculture and proposes measures for creating a more resilient as well as sustainable food system, which includes a plan for product labelling. The effort to improve information conveyed to consumers through product labelling is a long-standing and ongoing phenomenon, and different front-of-pack voluntary labels presently co-exist across EU Member States. One objective of the Farm to Fork Strategy is to harmonize them; a second objective, no less important, is to add ‘sustainability’ as an additional quality to be certified through labels. Yet, adopting some of the current models of voluntary front-of-pack labels—in order to better promote both dietary health and sustainability—might conflict with a...

The managerial responsibilities and resources required to implement the methods of nutrition labeling of foods lie with the whole food system. The use of back-of-pack (BOP) nutrition labeling in the form of the nutrition declaration is widespread in commercial practice, and in the EU it is even mandatory for most products. Detailed numerical information on the nutrient content of the product makes it difficult for consumers to understand. Through a quantitative exploratory research, this paper focuses on the descriptive analysis of different voluntary front of pack (FOP) labeling schemes, assessing their impact on consumers' perception of the nutritional quality of products and determining their usefulness in terms of understanding the declared nutritional information. We are interested in increasing the usefulness of these systems in the context of a low level of consumer understanding of nutritional information (especially BOP), as indicated by the results obtained. This will facilitate the process of selecting more nutritionally balanced products to meet the need for education and healthy lifestyles. We start from the premise that the harmonization of front of pack labeling schemes, which tend to take the form of graded indicators, could be considered a necessary and useful innovative solution in the process of selecting and comparing food products on the market according to their declared nutritional profile. A single, voluntary, interpretative traffic light system, as the EU proposes, would harmonize the nutritional labeling of foods, as a condition for putting social policy on consumer nutrition education into practice, but also for facilitating the reformulation and promotion of healthier foods, beyond the controversies over the discrimination of some of them.

6 German Law on unfair competition, in the version applicable to the dispute in the main proceedings (see paragraph 12 of the Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb eV judgment). 7 See paragraph 17 of the Verband Sozialer Wettbewerb eV judgment. 8 Ibidem.

The research analyzed the perception of food traceability among consumers in Italy and the role of food labels in supporting consumer information about food traceability. The components (health, quality, product origin and many others) that are involved in the concept of food traceability were examined and the most important ones were identified. An online survey (n=511 consumers) was carried out in Milan in the north of Italy. Students and employees from the Bocconi University were selected in order to investigate the relevance of food traceability in consumer purchasing decisions. An ordered logit regression was applied. The findings confirm that consumers are interested in various components of food traceability and look for labels that provide information on the product supply chain. The research confirms that traceability is important in the food market and some types of labels on product features (as product sustainability or origin) are associated with it.

Introduction: The main legislation governing food labelling in Sri Lanka is the Food Act which is implemented by health authorities. Food labels provide information to help consumers make healthier and safe food choices. Objectives: To assess the compliance of health and nutrition claims of labels of non-alcoholic beverages with food labelling regulation Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in all 18 supermarkets in the Kandy Municipal Council Area. Non-alcoholic beverages were assessed. A judgmentally validated pre-tested checklist containing provisions of the labelling regulation was used as the study instrument. Data collection was done by four trained data collectors. Results:  Of the 214 beverages assessed, 5.1% (n=11) did not have the common name in two languages. Claims or pictures to the effect that the beverage is recommended by medical practitioners or a professional association was present in 8.1% (n=19). Of the 56 milk products and health drinks, ...

Many systems for classifying food products to adequately predict lower all-cause morbidity and mortality have been proposed as front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional labels. Although the efforts and advances that these systems represent for public health must be appreciated, as scientists involved in nutrition research and belonging to diverse Italian nutrition scientific societies, we would like to draw stakeholders’ attention to the fact that some FOP labels risk being not correctly informative to consumers’ awareness of nutritional food quality. The European Commission has explicitly called for such a nutrition information system to be part of the European “strategy on nutrition, overweight and obesity-related issues” to “facilitate consumer understanding of the contribution or importance of the food to the energy and nutrient content of a diet”. Some European countries have adopted the popular French proposal Nutri-Score. However, many critical limits and inadequacies have been identif...

INTRODUCTION: Labelling is an important tool for food and nutrition professionals since it provides information on food safety and nutrition. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to analyse the differences in food and nutrition professionals' opinions regarding nutrition labelling on prepacked foods. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted, using a non-probabilistic sample of professionals, by contacting several Portuguese entities in food and nutrition. The eligibility criteria included being 18 years old and over, living and working in Portugal, and having a professional activity in this area. An online self-administered survey was developed, including questions about labelling (importance, reading, use, trust, satisfaction, and influence in food choices). The main changes in the European Union labelling rules about the content, presentation and legibility of the mandatory information were analysed. The present paper focuses on the answers to the open-ended question on suggestions to improve nutrition labelling. RESULTS: From the 297 participants, 33 (11.1%) provided answers to the open-ended question, which were subsequently grouped into six categories. These professionals demonstrated the least satisfaction with the label information namely the specific technical terms, the quantity of information, the symbols used and the nutritional claims. They showed the least agreement with the presentation and content of the nutrition information, implemented by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. Two improvements were proposed: the simplification of the labelling information and the understanding of its usefulness as it is currently presented, to provide perceptible and useful information to the consumer. CONCLUSIONS: Nutrition labelling educational tools should be developed, in order to promote nutrition literacy and lead to consumer's empowerment.

Many systems for classifying food products to adequately predict lower all-cause morbidity and mortality have been proposed as front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional labels. Although the efforts and advances that these systems represent for public health must be appreciated, as scientists involved in nutrition research and belonging to diverse Italian nutrition scientific societies, we would like to draw stakeholders’ attention to the fact that some FOP labels risk being not correctly informative to consumers’ awareness of nutritional food quality. The European Commission has explicitly called for such a nutrition information system to be part of the European “strategy on nutrition, overweight and obesity-related issues” to “facilitate consumer understanding of the contribution or importance of the food to the energy and nutrient content of a diet”. Some European countries have adopted the popular French proposal Nutri-Score. However, many critical limits and inadequacies have been identif...

Many systems for classifying food products to adequately predict lower all-cause morbidity and mortality have been proposed as front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional labels. Although the efforts and advances that these systems represent for public health must be appreciated, as scientists involved in nutrition research and belonging to diverse Italian nutrition scientific societies, we would like to draw stakeholders’ attention to the fact that some FOP labels risk being not correctly informative to consumers’ awareness of nutritional food quality. The European Commission has explicitly called for such a nutrition information system to be part of the European “strategy on nutrition, overweight and obesity-related issues” to “facilitate consumer understanding of the contribution or importance of the food to the energy and nutrient content of a diet”. Some European countries have adopted the popular French proposal Nutri-Score. However, many critical limits and inadequacies have been identif...

On 4th August 2021, The Netherlands notified to the EU Commission, via TRIS system, the "Regulation of the Minister for Medical Care, designating Nutri-Score as a food choice logo and its conditions of use (Regulation on the designation of food choice logo)". In short The Netherlands is endorsing the Nutri-Score French system for the front of pack repetition of the nutrition information. It seems that the system will be voluntary (not mandated on all products by law) and mutual recognition for products legally manufactured and marketed in other Member States will be granted. The standstill period for comments will end on 5th November 2021.

European Union (EU) policies have been evolving beyond the protection of consumers through food safety protocols to the promotion of healthy and sustainable diets. The European Commission's Farm to Fork Strategy-the most recent step in this evolutionaddresses challenges facing European agriculture and proposes measures for creating a more resilient as well as sustainable food system, which includes a plan for product labelling. The effort to improve information conveyed to consumers through product labelling is a longstanding and ongoing phenomenon, and different front-of-pack voluntary labels presently coexist across EU Member States. One objective of the Farm to Fork Strategy is to harmonize them; a second objective, no less important, is to add 'sustainability' as an additional quality to be certified through labels. Yet, adopting some of the current models of voluntary front-ofpack labels-in order to better promote both dietary health and sustainability-might conflict with already-established measures implemented by the Common Agricultural Policies, such as Geographical Indication protection for agri-food products. Furthermore, influencing consumers' behaviour through labelling should not be regarded as equivalent to 'empowering' consumers in terms of nutrition and sustainable choices. Labelling needs to be complemented by higher levels of policy interventions-incentives/disincentives or even policies that limit or restrict choices-in order to rebalance power in the food supply chain and to induce a change in the complex social practices of food consumption. This paper examines the Farm to Fork Strategy through an analysis of EU policy documents, existing literature, and the discussion of a case study-with particular attention paid to the role of labels in promoting healthy and sustainable diets as well as the possibility of new sustainability criteria for products certified with Geographic Indications.

European Union (EU) policies have been evolving beyond the protection of consumers through food safety protocols to the promotion of healthy and sustainable diets. The European Commission's Farm to Fork Strategy-the most recent step in this evolutionaddresses challenges facing European agriculture and proposes measures for creating a more resilient as well as sustainable food system, which includes a plan for product labelling. The effort to improve information conveyed to consumers through product labelling is a longstanding and ongoing phenomenon, and different front-of-pack voluntary labels presently coexist across EU Member States. One objective of the Farm to Fork Strategy is to harmonize them; a second objective, no less important, is to add 'sustainability' as an additional quality to be certified through labels. Yet, adopting some of the current models of voluntary front-ofpack labels-in order to better promote both dietary health and sustainability-might conflict with already-established measures implemented by the Common Agricultural Policies, such as Geographical Indication protection for agri-food products. Furthermore, influencing consumers' behaviour through labelling should not be regarded as equivalent to 'empowering' consumers in terms of nutrition and sustainable choices. Labelling needs to be complemented by higher levels of policy interventions-incentives/disincentives or even policies that limit or restrict choices-in order to rebalance power in the food supply chain and to induce a change in the complex social practices of food consumption. This paper examines the Farm to Fork Strategy through an analysis of EU policy documents, existing literature, and the discussion of a case study-with particular attention paid to the role of labels in promoting healthy and sustainable diets as well as the possibility of new sustainability criteria for products certified with Geographic Indications.

As soon as the industrial innovations of the 20th century permitted the distance selling of foods, the provision of more accurate labels became a matter of primary concern, being the consumers interested in the adoption of conscious purchase choices and the producers willing to secure a trade based on fair commercial practices.
The pre-existing inhomogeneous mechanism of communication of the food information was hence updated, combined and replaced by the Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, which empowered a constructive dialogue between the national and the EU levels, equally binding all the actors involved in the food chain to the respect of the new rules.
Practically, the document increased the Member States’ cooperation, whose margin of intervention was drastically reduced, and promoted the overall market competitiveness, specifying a list of mandatory information to be integrated in the label.
In order to maintain a certain degree of flexibility in respect of the evolving needs of the food sector, the Regulation was then internally articulated into different sections, where the first considers the provision of the food information, the second deals with the measures on food labelling and the last determines the range of action of such rules.
The EU text of reference on the voluntary information is instead represented by the Regulation (EU) 1924/2006, adopted with the aim to harmonise the communicative tools used as a mean of attraction of the final consumer.
In this respect, the EU legislators tried to uniform the presentation and advertising of the food products by setting up specific authorization procedures, requirements and restrictions for both the nutrition and the health claims. Moreover, they determined trustfulness requirements, evaluative criteria and equal parameters, necessary for implementing a strict control of the national measures and for clarifying the usable kind of signs.
In addition, the legal document addressed the case of the so-called negative claims, namely «free-from» signs that highlight the absence rather than the presence of specific substances in the nutritional composition of a considered product.
Nevertheless, with the aim to integrate their content on matters left uncovered at the EU level, the same Regulations invested the Member States with the competence to ratify national measures on food labelling.
In Italy, for instance, the legislators dealt with the mandatory indication of the place of provenance and the country of origin of products whose primary ingredient is clearly identifiable, a topic they assessed by implementing a series of ministerial decrees with trial basis. However, due to the economic difficulties caused by the rapid spread of the Covid-19, the competent Ministers decided to postpone until 2021the entry into force of the European Regulation expected to replace them.
In the same light, other Italian decrees focused on the indication of the production plant and on the sanctions to be applied in case of illegitimate uses of the regulated claims; consequently, the competence to control the lawful application of these rules was assigned to different Authorities, among which the AGCM pertains a prominent role in securing the consumers’ protection from inappropriate commercial practices.
The discretionary power left by the EU Regulations on the forms of expression of the mandatory information led then to the diffusion of new voluntary labelling systems: called Front-of-Pack (FOP) schemes, these signs simplify the content of the nutritional information by relying on the use of colours and symbols, combining the visual impact they pertain with the consumers’ need to adopt purchase decisions in a matter of seconds.
Particularly, the positive results reached by the British and French systems persuaded the BEUC to support the idea of a common wide-EU FOP label, declaring that a so-codified informative tool would be easily understood regardless of the consumers’ educational level; additionally, the European association stated, it would also contribute to foster the free circulation of goods, securing the smooth functioning of the whole internal market.
However, based on the legal inconsistencies that can be drawn in respect of the compliance with the Regulations on food labelling, not all the Member States agree on the way the FOP labels have been codified: the one most openly opposed to a similar approach is Italy, whose authorities are critic about the generalisation of the food information that is inevitably caused by the schemes and worried about the discrimination they impose on more traditional products, which are unable to alter their nutritional values or components by making use of artificial substitute ingredients.
As a result, the increasingly mislead and confused consumers might be driven to restrict their diet to green-labelled foods only, an attitude that fails to consider the psychological and physical benefits of maintaining a balanced and varied eating approach.
In response, Italy proposed a new and alternative FOP label, constituted by charging light-blue batteries that symbolise the percent of nutrients. Regardless of the criticisms received by some EU organizations, since last year the model has been allowed to lawfully circulate at the national level, a situation that may pave the way for a definitive EU-wide harmonization on the use of the FOP schemes.
What is clear, thus, is that the labels are called to face a never-ending process of change and adjustment to the evolving consumers’ needs and concerns.
Let’s consider, for instance, how the purchase behaviours are now persistently moved by reasons of healthiness and wellness, a feature that empowered the rapid diffusion of «sugar-free», «vegan» and «bio» indications, all characterised by very positive marketing values.
According to the same reasoning, concerns for the respect of the environment persuaded several industries to consider the use of new Ecolabels, a perspective embraced by great economic colossus such as McDonald’s.
Moreover, the mankind’s duties to protect the animals from unnecessary sufferings and to secure their well-being increased the marketing value of the Animal Welfare sign, imposing the compliance with a specific set of rules for bearing the claim.
A very salient role in this framework is also represented by the Made in Italy certification, a world-widely recognised synonym of quality and reliability; nevertheless, it is also the one that suffered the most due to the spread of fear and wrongful information during the first wave of pandemic.
At last, taste-related signs like «crunchy» are increasingly used in order to trigger the consumers’ brain areas that are stimulated by odour and smell, emphasising peculiar qualities of the products for sale that may meet the currently demanded features.
However, although such system could play a significant role in supporting the consumption of healthy products, not all the producers are willing to lose the trust of more traditional buyers: indeed, while some people still tend to value taste over healthiness, others might be economically incapable of affording the purchase of alternative products, whose peculiar qualities make them inevitably expensive.

Recent legislation by the United States and European Union governments now mandates the provision of country-of-origin
(COO) information at the point of purchase for a variety of meats, fruits, vegetables, and other assorted food products. To better
understand the significance of these regulatory changes, two decades of existing COO food labeling research are synthesized,
reviewed, and discussed. The implications for two primary sets of actors within aggregate marketing systems, consumers and
practitioners, are then discussed from a macromarketing perspective. Based on the reviewed literature, the authors conclude
that little generalizable knowledge about COO food labeling effects exists, and further identify a lack of sufficient theoretical application
and development as a primary reason. Consequently, the exact impact of mandatory (and voluntary) COO labeling initiatives
for consumers and practitioners still remains unclear and highly debatable. Thus, as these initiatives continue to make
country-of-origin labeling more commonplace around the world, it is crucial that additional theory-driven research be conducted,
especially from a macromarketing perspective, to foster more generalizable knowledge about the complex role of COO information
in aggregate food marketing systems.

This opinion article addresses the implications of recent EU regulations on alcoholic drinks labeling for regional development. In March 2017, the European Commission released a report requiring the mandatory labeling of ingredients and nutritional information for alcoholic beverages within 1 year, putting an end to the exceptionality of this sector compared to other foodstuffs, and responding to pressing demands by European consumer associations and other actors. Pressure from the alcohol sector had delayed EU legislation on the matter and managed to avoid a mandatory labeling provision, instead generating the possibility of making its own regulation proposal within a year. The Commission will assess this proposal in March 2018 and could review or reject it if found to be unsatisfactory. Here, we want to examine the controversy elicited by this new regulation, analyzing the consequences of labeling (or not) in the particular case of wine regions. It shows how the lack of labeling regulations harms winemakers oriented towards the production of quality wines and generates important information asymmetries that can lead to an overall decrease of wine quality. Ultimately, it highlights the relevance of a regional perspective on EU sectoral policies, as these can have unintended effects and lead to contradictory outcomes. The example of wine regions is used to emphasize this issue by showing the need to harmonize regional cohesion and CAP policies with industrial, environmental and consumer protection policies.

This article presents an overview of the long term trends in the trading patterns for salted herring in the area of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and their hinterlands in the period of c. 1600-1850. The market is defined as ‘the interaction between supply and demand to determine the market price and corresponding quantity bought and sold.’  In this period the north European herring market underwent several changes. This is analysed from four different points of view:
The first main section examines the main trading routes for herring in Northern Europe by use of records from the Sound toll registers as well as from accounts of herring imports in the German North Sea and Baltic cities. Then a number of price series for various parts of northern Europe give indications for the long term development of prices of herring. Following this an analysis of the consumption patterns of salted herring is carried out, and finally the influence of mercantilist policies is evaluated.

Accounting for Taste examines the history of the US Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of markets through labels as a form of public–private infrastructure, built through the ceaseless work (and antagonisms) of public regulators, the food industry, and expert advisors. From public hearings on setting “standards of identity” for foods to rule making on informative labels like the Nutrition Facts panel, it links a narrow history of institutional change in food regulation to broader cultural anxieties of twentieth-century America, arguing that the recurrence to informative labels as a political solution reflects a transformation in not only scientific understandings of dietary risk but also cultural understandings about the responsibility of consumers. In describing this “informational turn” in food politics, the dissertation foregrounds the important role of intermediaries, specifically consumer and health experts, and intermediate spaces, such as labels, in the framing of political debates about the production and consumption of everyday goods.

Growing public health concern over chronic degenerative diseases and their association with overeating has challenged many classical governance policies on food production and fostering a healthy, productive citizenry. Among the tools that governments are using to address new understandings of food, diet, and risk are information labels. Regulators designed these to empower and ‘mobilise the consumer’ (Miller & Rose, 1997) to make informed and ‘correct’ food purchases. This paper discusses the history of nutrition labelling in the United States to illustrate some common scientific and legal challenges, assumptions, and limitations of ‘read the label’ campaigns. While food labelling efforts may open up opportunities to cultivate new understandings of food and risk, labelling alone does not offer a solution to enduring problems of ensuring food quality nor settle more recent questions concerning the proper role of expertise in democracies.