News From S.A. on food labels.

[themyst]

HI

I belong to one of those Lawyer insurances and they send out a quarterly email with news info. This was in this quarter's email.

New regulations target claims on foodstuffs
A strict new set of regulations, prohibiting the use of certain wording on
food labels and aimed at protecting consumers against misrepresentations,
has been compiled by the Health Department. According to a report in The
Witness, the banned words include ‘health’, ‘healthy’ (except in highly
exceptional instances), ‘balanced’ and ‘suitable for diabetics’ (excluding
artificial sweeteners). For example, fruit juices will no longer be
allowed to display the words ‘not made with concentrate’ unless the juice
was pressed from fresh fruit and is sold within 24 hours. The same goes
for the words ‘natural’ and ‘nature’ (or any similar words) that indicate
the product ‘occurs naturally’, which will have to be removed from the
labels of a large number of products as it is seen as ‘a misleading
description’. Health Department spokesperson Solly Mabatha said the
department will have to act carefully before the new regulations are
implemented as they represent such a drastic move away from existing
regulations. The regulations will officially come into force as soon as
they are approved by Health Minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. -- Legal & Tax.

[Hawk one]

Well, on a general basis, I am in definite favour of strong consumer-protecting laws with regards to labeling on foods. Someone trying to sell me a hamburger, I'm quite happy that I live in a country that defines what you can call hamburger meat (with regards to meat content, fat percentage and stuff like that) if you want to sell me hamburgers.

But, before I throw my support to this one here, I would certainly like to know one thing for sure: Is there really any actual differences between "natural" juice (as they've defined it) and concentrates? (As a follow-up, one can also ask if there are differences, whether they are actually in favour of the natural product...) Because if there aren't any practical differences, there really isn't any reason not to allow any Apple Juice Salesman to put "natural" on it as long as it's actual apple -juice- (we have strict guidelines for what you can label juice too, of course.).

I feel quite OK with the ban of the word "healthy", though, as a lot of stuff not really regarded as healthy can in fact be healthy in small doses; and that too much of one thing can most definitely be unhealthy, almost no matter what it is. And some people might be allergic to what other people just about need in their diet, so basically, it has little to no meaning to put it on any single foodstuff. And the trick for a balanced diet would be to eat varied, which is something one single product simply won't do, so I can understand that one going.

In short, some OK decisions here, some a bit more questionable. Though to be fair, I don't really feel outraged by them, as I feel it could be worse.

[clarsct]

First of all, foods are not healthy, unless your celery stalks are doing pushups.

Eating celery is healthful.
Once picked, the vegetable is technically dead.

As for the rest,

I, too, live in a country where these things are strictly regulated, and I am glad they are. BUt I question the validity of the changes in semantics. Fruit juice and fruit punch are different things, with different properties, but sometimes I wonder if these things aren't just label changes that do not effect the product.

If the changes are for a real purpose, then by all means, full steam ahead. But let's make sure we know why we're changing something, eh?

[themyst]

Of course it all depends on if this law is really passed or not. After all our health minister is the holder of a Pigasus* award.

* the one where she said eating garlic will cure you of AIDS.

[wunky]

right up there with
"no sugar added"- that does not preclude the use of other sweeteners or sucrose laden additives
"fat free"- you have to look somewhere on the product to see which type of fat it is free of

Has anyone else seen on bags on carrots it says all natural- what is that supposed to mean? The carrots have not been genetically modified? That says nothing about how the seeds were hybridized, what chemicals were used in the soil...

[jj]

Once picked, the vegetable is technically dead.


Not necessarily. Cells in a tomato may live on quite a while after it's taken from the vine, ditto many other fruits and vegetables. Certainly even celery after it's cut remains alive for quite a while, I've managed to root one in a glass of rootone, for instance. If it was dead, that wouldn't work.

It's safe to say unless you do something that it WILL die pretty soon, yeah, I'll go along with that.