Spin versus fair speak in food labelling: A matter of taste?

Abstract

The article sheds new light on sensory elements in legal cases concerning misleading food labelling. It presents the findings of a qualitative review of 821 cases on misleading food labelling registered in 2002–2007 by the Danish food authorities. The cases show that sensory tends to be backgrounded by other arguments more easily verbalized. A taxonomy of the sensory dimensions of the cases is set up and different sensory aspects are analyzed in order to establish to what the extent and how sensory variables can be integrated into experimental setups for testing the misleading potential of food naming and labelling solutions with a view to promoting “fair speak” principles for in-store food-to-consumer communication. The study is part of the cross-disciplinary research project “Spin or fair speak – when foods talk” which aims at providing new knowledge, tools, and experimental evidence for self-regulation, public control, and innovation in food naming and labelling.