Watch out: Are your food labels misleading you?

A young woman reads the label on a food jar while shopping at a grocery store.

 Grocery shopping will often see consumers in the UAE exposed to a number of different food labels that have an impact on what they will ultimately end up purchasing. The question that rarely crosses a shopper's mind, however, is whether, or to what extent, those labels are true.
Around 95 per cent of UAE residents rely on food labels, but only 11 per cent check whether such claims are true, according to a recent survey conducted by Prime Certification and Inspection.

A sister company of Geoscience Testing Laboratory, Prime Certification and Inspection also found that 99 per cent of the respondents are uncertain on how they can verify the claims. According to the survey, the top five labels often seen by the respondents were 'fresh', 'low fat', 'all natural or 100 per cent natural', 'sugar-free', and 'no caffeine'.
Abdullatif Abdulla Ali Al Gargawi, chairman of Prime Certification and Inspection, said that with 89 per cent of shoppers admitting that they do not check if such claims are true, many could be putting their health at risk.
"There are people with certain health conditions who have particular diet requirements. The diabetics would need to control their sugar intake, so they would need food that is sugar-free. Those who suffer from palpitations would need a drink that is caffeine-free. If people were to believe the food labels without checking the facts, this could be detrimental to their health. The sugar-free drink they just bought might be loaded with all the sugars that are bad for their health."
The recent scare over trans fats has also led most food labels to declare that an item has 'zero trans fats', which is reassuring for a buyer. However, according to the US Food and Drug Administration, a product can make that zero trans fats claim if each serving has less than 0.5gm of the fat. But when a person ends up consuming several servings of a product, they are undoubtedly consuming quite a bit of trans fats.
- rohma@khaleejtimes.com