Food Labeling: Does It Encourage You To Make Ethical Choices?

Some of you may know about the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and what they are responsible for. The FSA is an independent Government department which was set up in 2000, and their job is to protect the public's health and consumer interests in relation to food.

"The Agency is entitled to make public the advice that it gives to Government ministers. This means that the Agency can be seen to act openly and independently in looking after the interests of consumers"

Due to various complaints and queries that questioned the format in which the FSA labelled food products, certain aspects of the food labeling system in England has been passed on to Defra (the Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs).

FoP (Front of Pack) labeling is one of the issues that has been causing concern for consumers. As you probably know, when you buy a food product there are various different ways that the brand can illustrate the food's nutritional values. Have a look at the pictures below to get a better idea of what I mean:

The image to the left is what is known as "traffic light labeling".
Red= very unhealthy
Amber = its 'ok'
Green = healthy
It was found that this form of labeling in the shape of a wheel sometimes confuses consumers, in the way that it looks like a pie chart. Consumers may think that the nutritional values are equal due to the size of each segment, when in fact this isn't the case at all.

The image to the right shows pastel colour labeling. This could also be misleading because consumers could potentially assume that the intensity of the colours convey similar messages to those of the traffic light system (as shown above), when this is completely untrue.

I personally think that there needs to be a standardized Front of Pack nutritional labeling system in order to avoid any confusion.

Below are a few simple questions which I would really appreciate you answering:

1. Were you aware that it was down to the Food Standards Agency to be responsible for food labeling?
2. What is your preferred style of food labeling? Or does it not really bother you how the nutritional values of a food product are displayed?
3. Would you agree that "traffic light labeling" is the most effective in terms of the red, amber and green colours that are used, but perhaps the shape of a wheel which could portray a pie chart causes confusion?
4. Does the nutritional information on the front of the pack affect your decisions when it comes to actually buying the food?

What about other information? 

I rarely see any information on food packaging which tells you where your food has come from. If your food is "local", is there any factual evidence which tells you where exactly the food has been sourced? If its "seasonal", do we really know that it is in fact seasonal, and that it hasn't been preserved with god knows how many chemicals? 

If you have a spare two minutes (literally two minutes!!) then please click on the link below to answer 10 short questions about the ethics of food labeling. (It would be a major help for one of my assignments) Go on.... you know you want to :)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZPVG2GK

New Years Eve: The Most Over-Rated Day Of The Year

Christmas Eve - Done. Christmas Day - Done. Boxing Day - Done. Too much eating and drinking with the family - Done. Now what?

After all of the hype that leads up to the winter festivities, I can safely say that now that Christmas is over, I have had the most boring two days, EVER. Yesterday was a bank holiday, nothing was open... there was literally nothing to do. And if that's not bad enough, today was exactly the same. If you don't want to head into town and get trampled on by manic shopaholics who are obsessed with the sales (which I definitely do NOT), you will probably find yourself being stuck at home like I am wondering what to do with yourself. So I thought that this would be the perfect time to write a new post. I haven't written one for a couple of weeks and I thought it was about time I spiced up my page with something new. 

It seems like everyone I've spoken to is feeling the same as I am. Everyone's spent just a little bit TOO much time at home with the family and the next best thing that they are looking forward to is new years eve. This year is the first in about 7 years where I am not going out clubbing, and I couldn't think of anything worse to be honest! Everyone who knows me, know's that I love going out and having a good time, but it has finally hit me that new years eve is possibly the most over-rated night of the year. It's made out to be this amazing and fantastic night where everyone celebrates the year that they have had and looks forward to the year ahead, but the truth of the matter is that it is just the same as any other night of the year, and the only difference is that you have to pay 10 times more for entry and drinks than a normal night. In other words, it's just another media - based, money - making scam. Oh, and something always goes wrong because everyone is too drunk to function. So I have decided to avoid this unnecessary drama and go out for dinner and have a more chilled evening instead! Don't get me wrong, I still will be celebrating and having a good time, but my way will be a little more pocket-friendly and I will probably actually remember the night (for once..ahem). 

I can't think of anything else to write so that will be all... I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and has a great new year too (hopefully I haven't put you off too much with my ranting!). Let me know your thoughts about what I have spoken about - Am I being the ultimate boring student? Or do I actually raise a valid point? I think I definitely do! 

The Shock Of Shisha: Research States It's As Harmful As Cigarettes

I was scanning through google trying to find some research relating to health issues for one of my uni projects, and a link popped up which said "Shisha 'as harmful as cigarettes'.

For those of you who may not have heard of Shisha, it is a water pipe, particularly popular in many Arab countries, in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, passed through an ornate water vessel and inhaled through a hose. Although originated in Middle Eastern cultures, it's become more and more popular throughout the UK, particularly in London, Birmingham, and also Manchester. It's known to be a relaxing and social interaction which is becoming increasingly available in many bars, restaurant's and clubs, and most importantly, it has never previously been seen as a danger hazard. 

The Department of Health and the Tobacco Control Collaborating Centre has found that smoking a shisha pipe is as bad for people as smoking a cigarette. Below I have listed a few facts which I found really shocking, and thought I would share it with you just so you know more about it and so that you can be careful:

• people who smoke shisha (herbal tobacco) can suffer from high carbon monoxide levels
• one session of smoking shisha resulted in carbon monoxide levels at least 4 - 5 times higher than the amount produced by one cigarette
• high levels of carbon monoxide can lead to brain damage and unconsciousness 
• A non-smoker who smokes shisha = less than 1% of blood not working properly
• A light-smoker who smokes shisha = 2-4% of blood not working properly
• A heavy-smoker who smokes shisha = 5-7% of blood not working properly.

I find it shocking that this research was conducted in 2009, and the amount of publicity and awareness that has been made regarding the subject has been minimal. I mean, this was the first I heard about it and we are now at the end of 2010! Perhaps this is because smoking is something that people just can't stop others from doing. Even if you know how bad smoking is for your health, which every smoker does, it still doesn't stop them doing it, so maybe it was thought that releasing this information at a high-alert level would be pointless. 

Reading this information did make me think twice about smoking shisha, however it's something that I really enjoy and considering that I'm from a Lebanese background myself it's something that I am surrounded by quite often. The bottom line is that it's not going to stop me from doing something which I enjoy.

Do you think that the media does enough to inform the public about health risks such as these? Or do you think that even if these risks were made more publicly aware, would it make a difference?

If you want to read more info about the topic then you can do so here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8214097.stm