Labeling Of Food Products Research Articles

From governance to government: The strengthened role of state bureaucracies in forest and agricultural certification

Private institutions for third-party (eco-)labelling of food and wood products has been a lively field of empirical research, peaking in the conception of certification as a “non-state market-driven governance system,” which is gaining rule-making authority domestically and internationally as a private governance institution and a transnational regime. Recent findings, however, suggest that state actors also play a decisive role in private certification governance. Questions relating to who within the state, however, so far remain unaddressed. Very recent empirical trends in the fields of timber and palm oil certification in Indonesia suggest that it is distinct public bureaucracies who start reclaiming certification authority through state-led mandatory schemes, challenging the private and transnational certification institutions in support of government-driven international certification regimes. Against this background, the objective of this paper is to substantiate the trend from transnational private to international state-driven governance by analyzing the role of distinct state bureaucracies in the emergence, diffusion, and reshaping of private natural resource governance systems. To achieve these objectives, we develop our propositions by combining insights from political certification studies, regime theory, as well as bureaucratic politics theory. Methodologically, we employ a qualitative case study design on recent developments in forest, timber, and palm oil certification systems in Argentina and Indonesia. Our results substantiate the observation that distinct state actors play a key role in private governance systems and, in the case of Indonesia, even re-claim labelling authority from private institutions by attempting to outcompete them through employing their exclusive regulatory power. The results further indicate a strong, self-interested support from domestic state bureaucracies to state-driven international rather than to transnational certification regimes, supporting the temporary governance hypothesis. We discuss and conclude on our results in light of literatures on private governance, policy sectors as well as international relations theory on the emergence of international and transnational regimes.

Urban Consumer Attitudes to Fresh Produce Safety in China

The objective of this study was to explain the determinants of the fresh vegetables purchase decision by Chinese urban consumers in Beijing including awareness and attitudes to food safety, and their willingness to pay (WTP) more for specific safety characteristics when buying fresh vegetables. The research rationale arises out of a history of food safety scares and scandals in China, and a national government response to promote quality assurance and safety through labelling. The primary hypothesis was that an understanding of food safety system s and product labelling, and trust in supply chain integrity would be key determinants in consumer willingness to purchase and pay more for safety assured vegetables. Based on a questionnaire survey of consumers in Beijing, the analysis found that the major factors underlying the purchase decision of fresh vegetables were product freshness, convenience and competitive price rather than assured product labelling. The decisions whether to purchase assurance-labelled vegetables and WTP more for chemical residue-free product were analysed by binomial and ordinal multinomial logit modelling respectively. It revealed a WTP moreof between 20% and 40%. Monthly household income was a key determinant of both quality assured product and WTP, together with degree of concern over residues, trust in reta iler and assurance labels and place of purchase. The results suggest much still remains to be done to build trust though rigorous monitoring and enforcement of food safety standards to improve supply chain integrity and consumer confidence.

Proximate and fatty acid composition of zebra (Equus quagga burchellii) muscle and subcutaneous fat.

The meat from African game species is healthy, naturally produced and increasingly popular with consumers. Among these species, zebra (Equus quagga burchellii) are growing in number in South Africa, with the meat from surplus animals holding potential to contribute to food security and economic stability. Despite being consumed locally and globally, little information exists on the composition of zebra meat. This study aimed to determine the proximate composition of zebra meat as well as the fatty acid composition of the intramuscular (IMF) and subcutaneous (SCF) fat. Zebra longissimus lumborum muscle was shown to have a high mean protein content (22.29 g per 100 g) and low mean fat content (1.47 g per 100 g). High proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were found in the IMF (41.15%) and SCF (37.71%), mainly comprising α-linolenic (C18:3n-3) and linoleic (C18:2n-6) acids. Furthermore, the IMF and SCF had favourable PUFA/saturated fatty acid ratios (>0.4) and omega-6/omega-3 ratios (<4), indicating that both components are healthy lipid food sources. This study has shed new light on the nutritional value of zebra meat, which will not only be important for food product labelling, nutritional education and incorporation into food composition databases, but will also be indispensable for marketing and export purposes. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

Impact of Food Labeling Information on Consumer Purchasing Decision: With Special Reference to Faculty of Agricultural Sciences

Consumer's attitudes towards the nutritional aspect of the foods are increasing rapidly. In this context, labels of food products play a significant role in providing the relevant nutrition information to consumers. This study was conducted with a view of identifying important nutritional labeling aspects that consumers would examine at the time of purchasing. Ultimate objective was to draw conclusions that provide important information for the food processors about consumer behavior in related to food nutritional aspects and the purchasing intention. Pre-tested structured questionnaire was employed to collect data from random sample of 90 respondents. Rank Based Quotient test and descriptive analytical tools were used to analyze the data. This study shows that majority of the respondents tend to examine the labels when making the purchasing decision due to evaluate the suitability of the food product for vegetarians, religious reasons, to avoid diseases related to food and to check whether the food is organically grown or not. Complicated life styles, their brand loyalty and complicated nature of food labels were the major reasons for not examine food labels. The promising opinions of respondents on existence of food labels were to know the expiry date, to know the nutritional composition and as a legal requirement. Majority of the consumers importantly concern on nutrient status. Monosodium Glutamate content strongly influence the purchasing decision of considerable fraction of the respondents. Name of the food was rated the most important mandatory labeling information. Food safety, environmental protection, origin of the food and brand reputation were the most concerning factors when observing food labels in the process of purchasing food products. According to the Suggestions produced by the respondents, making information easier to understand, standardizing the presentation information, creating colorful and attractive labels were highlighted as the major suggestions. Eventually findings of this study suggests food producers should draw and implement the strategies by considering above key results in order to improve the status of food labeling as well as nutritional status of the consumers.

An Empirical Study for the Mobile Food Trace ability: Private Trace ability System for the White Gourd in Tianjin, China

As the food supply chain globalization became inevitable, transparency in the way agriculture was grown and handled throughout the supply chain process resulted in an important issue of ‘traceability’ in global food trade and safety for health management. Traceability in agriculture is faced with the technological challenges including food product label and identification, activity/process characterization, information systems for data capture, analysis, storage, and the integration of the overall traceable data for the supply chain, i.e., from farm to table. While some field data can be automatically acquired and transmitted by sensor networking, most agricultural activity information was recorded by manual handwriting for the traceability information systems. System architecture, operation scenarios, and the implementation examples for the mobile farming data collection system to automatically record the agricultural activities information for famers were proposed in this research. The farming information for farming activities is coded in two-dimensional labels of quick response (QR) codes. By scanning the proper operation labels, the corresponding farming data can be captured and uploaded simultaneously to the back-end web server. A collaborative research project for the traceability of white gourd planting in Tianjin was performed. The system can be implemented for public traceability system data collection and importing, as well as playing the roles of a private traceability system. The consumers’ confidence for healthy food choices with clear food traceability can be improved.

Communicating Sensory Attributes and Innovation Through Food Product Labeling

This article explores the influence of food product packaging on consumers’ sensory expectations and perceived newness of the product. Two experiments examine to what extent consumers use product typicality, graphical representations, and package typicality in evaluating new food products. Study 1 finds that (1) a typical flavor induces more positive expectations of pleasantness, taste, color, and smell, and (2) the presence of graphic representation on product labels increases perceived pleasantness but does not affect sensory expectations. Study 2 indicates that the product seems newer in the absence of a package (label-only condition), but when the product packaging is presented, an atypical package conveys more newness than a typical package. These results provide practical guidelines for the design and introduction of innovative food products.

Eksistensi dan Tanggung Jawab Majelis Ulama Indonesia dalam Penerapan Sertifikasi dan Labelisasi Halal Produk Pangan di Indonesia

Halal certification is done to assure halal status of a product. Hence, it can pacify consumers who consume it. The issue of food for Muslims in not only should be healthy, but also must be halal, and appropriate with the guidance of Sharia. Therefore, it takes a special institutions of reviewing and overseeing halal products to be consumed by Muslims, including the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI). The MUI existence and responsibility is needed, especially in terms of the application and certification of halal labeling of food products in Indonesia DOI: 10.15408/aiq.v3i2.2140

Fruit and Vegetable Co-Products as Functional Feed Ingredients in Farm Animal Nutrition for Improved Product Quality

There are significant environmental, economic and social factors favoring the reutilization of fruit and vegetable processing co-products in farm animal nutrition. Current evidence shows that fruit and vegetable processing co-products can be effectively used in farm animal nutrition as functional feed ingredients for the production of food products of improved quality. These ingredients comply with consumer requests for the production of “clean,” “natural” and “eco/green” label food products. The main parameters affecting extensive application of fruit and vegetable processing by-/co-products as functional feed ingredients in livestock nutrition are related to animal factors, logistics, and commercial value. Further research is needed to enable the commercial application of these products to livestock nutrition.

Analysis of Snack Food Purchasing and Consumption Behavior

ABSTRACTThis exploratory research examines the purchasing and consumption behavior of snack food consumers. A structured questionnaire and intercept interviews were used to collect quantitative data from respondents inside supermarket stores. For marketers, a key contribution of this study is the importance of the price attribute and certain product claims. Sugar and total fat were found to be the most important nutritional factors that consumers consider when making a purchase decision, but it was also found that only around one half of all consumers actually read product labels when purchasing snack foods. Matters of particular concern that are highlighted by this study are that one third of consumers do not consider their snacking behavior to be healthy, and one quarter of consumers choose to snack in secret. This study addressed a number of gaps in current knowledge by identifying the snack food products that are most frequently consumed, the reasons for consuming snacks, whether consumers read snack food product labels, the importance of various attributes and product claims, whether consumers regard their snacking behavior to be healthy, and whether they snack in secret.

Formatting Food Labels for Safety and Health

Being able to locate the list of ingredients on a food product label can be important for consumers’ health and safety. However, the arrangements of components on food labels could make it difficult to find the ingredients. This study examines whether the relative physical placement of the list of ingredients affects the time it takes for users to locate it. The location of the list of ingredients was varied on a food product label. The results suggest that the list of ingredients is found faster when it is located in the upper portions of a food label and closer to the nutrition facts panel than other locations on the label. Implications for improving food label safety are discussed.

Ex-formation as a method for mapping smellscapes

‘Every city, let me teach you, has its own smell.’ This quote, from an early chapter of E.M. Forster’s ‘A Room With a View’, points to a humanistic understanding of global urban smellscapes with the potential therein for shared understanding. Exploring options for the communication of Singapore’s ‘own smell’ this visual essay suggests how ‘ex-formation’ may be used as to probe one ontological view of the map…. The main characteristic of an ex-formation approach is ‘unlikely combination as suggestion’ e.g. tarmac roads in place of a river surface alluding to the changing scale of a river from trickle to delta, inedible organic matter packaged in white styrofoam with clear food product labelling suggesting a hygienic trust of shrink-wrapped food over natural produce, miniature underwear on inanimate objects suggesting that objects too might have nudity... Smell and visual is one such unlikely combination suggesting that invisible smell objects can be pervasive and imbued with colour.

Monitoring the prevalence of genetically modified (GM) soybean in Turkish food and feed products

Soybean is the most widely cultivated genetically modified (GM) crop, and an ingredient in many foodstuffs worldwide. Legislation in the EU and Turkey only allows approved GM events to be imported, and requires labelling of food products containing >0.9% GM ingredients. In order to assess compliance with this legislation, 75 soy-containing Turkish food and feed products (none of which were labelled as GM) were successfully screened for the presence of four GM elements (CaMV 35S/tNOS/bar/FMV 35S). All positive samples were then tested for the 3GM soybean events approved for use in animal feeds in Turkey (RRS, MON89788 & A2704-12) by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). GM soybean was a major ingredient in 15 out of 19 animal feeds tested; it was also detected in some food samples (6/56), although at low levels. These findings provide the most comprehensive study to date of the penetration of GM soybean into the Turkish market.

Possible association between celiac disease and bacterial transglutaminase in food processing: a hypothesis

The incidence of celiac disease is increasing worldwide, and human tissue transglutaminase has long been considered the autoantigen of celiac disease. Concomitantly, the food industry has introduced ingredients such as microbial transglutaminase, which acts as a food glue, thereby revolutionizing food qualities. Several observations have led to the hypothesis that microbial transglutaminase is a new environmental enhancer of celiac disease. First, microbial transglutaminase deamidates/transamidates glutens such as the endogenous human tissue transglutaminase. It is capable of crosslinking proteins and other macromolecules, thereby changing their antigenicity and resulting in an increased antigenic load presented to the immune system. Second, it increases the stability of protein against proteinases, thus diminishing foreign protein elimination. Infections and the crosslinked nutritional constituent gluten and microbial transglutaminase increase the permeability of the intestine, where microbial transglutaminases are necessary for bacterial survival. The resulting intestinal leakage allows more immunogenic foreign molecules to induce celiac disease. The increased use of microbial transglutaminase in food processing may promote celiac pathogenesis ex vivo, where deamidation/transamidation starts, possibly explaining the surge in incidence of celiac disease. If future research substantiates this hypothesis, the findings will affect food product labeling, food additive policies of the food industry, and consumer health education.

The Influence of a Factitious Free-From Food Product Label on Consumer Perceptions of Healthfulness

BackgroundGiven the rapid rise of free-from products available in the marketplace (especially gluten-free), more research is needed to understand how these products influence consumer perceptions of healthfulness. ObjectiveTo determine whether perceptions of healthfulness can be generated about free-from products in the absence of risk information. DesignA survey was administered to 256 adults. Two picture-based food product questions evaluated which products consumers perceived to be healthier. One free-from designation was fabricated (MUI-free), whereas gluten-free was used as the comparison designation. For each question, participants chose which product they thought was healthier (free-from, conventional, or equally healthy). Statistical analysesA χ2 test was run to assess the difference between responses to picture-based food product questions. Multinomial regression assessed variance in responses attributable to participant demographic characteristics. ResultsAmong the respondents, 21.9% selected the MUI-free product as healthier, whereas 25.5% selected the gluten-free product as healthier. Frequency data showed that a significant number of participants chose both free-from products as healthier than the conventional products (P<0.001). Regression analysis found that individuals who identified as gluten intolerant or unsure of a gluten intolerance were significantly more likely than other participants to choose the free-from product as healthier compared with choosing “equally healthy” (P=0.040). Hispanics and those with an associate’s degree or vocational training were significantly more likely than their referent groups (whites and those with a doctoral degree, respectively) to choose the free-from product as healthier compared with choosing “equally healthy” (P=0.022 and 0.034, respectively). Finally, African Americans were more likely than whites to choose the conventional product as healthier compared with choosing “equally healthy” (P=0.016). ConclusionsFrequency data demonstrated that free-from products can generate perceptions of healthfulness in the absence of risk information. Self-reported intolerance data suggest that individuals with a heightened concern about the risks associated with gluten may perceive the larger category of free-from products as more healthful. In addition, ethnicity and education level appear to play a role in free-from product perception.

The Impact of Consumer Confusion on Nutrition Literacy and Subsequent Dietary Behavior

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the impact of consumer confusion on nutrition knowledge, literacy, and dietary behavior. While previous research largely focuses on understanding why consumers might not respond to healthy eating communications, this paper seeks to uncover the various behavioral responses to such campaigns, particularly those that contravene health communication objectives. Using an interpretive methodology, findings suggest that most participants do respond to health communications by striving to eat healthily, but inadequate nutrition information derived from unreliable sources, flawed baseline nutrition knowledge, and poor nutrition literacy hinder participants’ efforts. Inconsistent, incomplete, and contradictory information leaves many participants feeling confused about how to implement healthy eating habits. Further, a lack of ability to differentiate between credible and unreliable sources of nutrition information means that many participants blame their confusion on policymakers, and express frustration and cynicism toward vague and often contradictory communications. This, in turn, increases participants’ reliance on food adverts, product labels, and other commercial sources of ambiguous yet appealing information. The paper's theoretical contribution includes a consumer confusion framework for healthy eating, and policy implications highlight that health campaigns seeking to increase consumer awareness of healthy eating are not enough. Policymakers must become the most credible sources of information about healthy eating, and distinguish themselves from competing and unreliable sources of nutrition information.

Enhancing USDA's Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies with Branded Food Product Label Data

Monitoring the dietary intake of Americans requires an accurate and complete database of foods and beverages and their nutrients. The average grocery store in the U.S. contains more than 40,000 items. There are over 20,000 new food and beverage products launched each year and continuing reformulations of existing products. Many of these changes are the result of public health initiatives to reduce intake of saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium. Label data in electronic format are being obtained through the Partnership for Public Health: Branded Food Products Database. The partnership is composed of USDA/ARS, the International Life Sciences Institute North America and the Agricultural Technology Innovation Partnership Foundation. The label information will include the manufacturer and brand, the Nutrition Facts Panel data, ingredients, serving size description and weight in grams, and dates for when a product is available, when it is discontinued, and when it is changed. Incorporating branded food product ...

Mediation and moderation in food-choice models: a study on the effects of consumer trust in logo on choice

The paper introduces a way to analyse the influence of mediating and moderating variables on willingness to pay in a simple way. Using data on 427 Italian consumers regarding different organic logos, mediation and moderation analysis is applied for the first time in a discrete choice setting. We tested the hypothesis that trust in logo mediates the relationship between the logo and consumer choice for organic labelled food products. Results do not allow rejecting the hypothesis that trust in logo totally mediates the effect of the logo. Therefore, the willingness for organic products could be interpreted as “cost for trust”: the higher the trust the higher the perceived value-for-money. The mediation effect of trust in logo does not vary across points-of-purchase or regions. Our novel approach is susceptible of various applications when analysing choice data and can be extended further.

Drug interactions involving antiepileptic drugs: Assessment of the consistency among three drug compendia and FDA-approved labels

Interactions of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) with other substances may lead to adverse effects and treatment failure. To avoid such interactions, clinicians often rely on drug interaction compendia. Our objective was to compare the concordance for twenty-two AEDs among three drug interaction compendia (Micromedex, Lexi-Interact, and Clinical Pharmacology) and the US Food and Drug Administration-approved product labels. For each AED, the overall concordance among data sources regarding existence of interactions and their classification was poor, with less than twenty percent of interactions listed in all four sources. Concordance among the three drug compendia decreased with the fraction of the drug excreted unchanged and was greater for established inducers of hepatic drug-metabolizing enzymes than for the drugs that are not inducers (R-square=0.83, P<0.01). For interactions classified as contraindications, major, and severe, concordance among the four data sources was, in most cases, less than 30%. Prescribers should be aware of the differences between drug interaction sources of information for both older AEDs and newer AEDs, in particular for those AEDs which are not involved in hepatic enzyme-mediated interactions.

Economic value as a functional unit for environmental labelling of food and other consumer products

The objective of this paper is to contribute to the debate on environmental labelling by exploring the potential of economic value as a functional unit (FU) for the environmental labelling of food and other consumer products. We used life cycle inventory (LCI) data for organic and conventional pigs and broiler chickens from the public French AGRIBALYSE LCI database and the CML 2001 method to calculate impacts per ton of animal live weight at the farm gate, per hectare (ha) of land occupied and per 1000 Euro of animal live weight. We also examined the relationship between carbon footprint (CF) and price for 24 food product groups representative of French food consumption. When using the FU live weight, organic animals had larger impacts than conventional animals. Per ha of land occupied, organic animals had smaller impacts than conventional animals, but production was lower. Per 1000 Euro of value, organic animals had similar or lower values for eutrophication, lower values for climate change and higher or similar values for land occupation. These results illustrate that the choice of FU is crucial when comparing products from highly efficient conventional systems to products from less intensive organic systems. For the 24 food product groups CF per product mass was positively correlated with product price; CF per product economic value was not correlated with product price. This suggests that a rebound effect may occur: consumers that choose foods with lower CFs per mass will tend to spend less money on food, leaving them with more money to buy other products which may compensate the reduced food CF. This type of correlation has not been observed for non-food sectors of the economy. Nevertheless, the FU economic value is attractive, as it considers product quality through the product's price. An economic-value-based FU will be more favourable to systems producing products of superior quality. More generally, an economic-value-based FU is well suited for environmental labelling of consumer products. A consumer has a certain budget to spend; an economic-value-based FU may guide the consumer towards reduced impacts per Euro spent. We recommend the use of an FU based on economic value for the environmental labelling of food and other consumer products. This FU will be a complement to currently used FUs. It will guide consumers towards lower impacts for a given expenditure.

Dietary exposure of the Belgian adult population to 70 food additives with numerical ADI

The safety of the use of food additives is evaluated through the intake assessment of the additives for the consumer. A stepwise approach (using EFSA's Food Additives intake model (FAIM), followed by Tier 2 and refined Tier 2) was used to assess the exposure of the Belgian adult population to food additives. Additives for which the daily intake exceeded the acceptable daily intake (ADI) were subjected to the next evaluation step. In total 70 additives with numerical ADI were identified on labels of food products for sale in the 5 most frequented supermarkets in Belgium. According to the refined Tier 2 assessment, the ADI could be exceeded for the stearoyl-2-lactylates and polysorbates. It was further concluded that the exposure to phosphates, sorbitan monolaurate, sorbitan monooleate, as well as to those additives with numerical ADI which are permitted as quantum satis, are to be studied further by using real use levels (Tier 3).