Last month’s poll

Last month we talked about how important the ingredients in household products are to you. We had just 16 voters: 37.5% say that the ingredients are very important, 56.25% say that the ingredients are somewhat important, and 6.25% say that the ingredients are not very important.

This month’s poll

Because we focused on household products and cosmetics last month (don’t worry – I’m not done with writing blog posts about household products!), this time I would like to know where you stand on nutrition labels. Since the launch of our Food Label Movement, it’s important to find out what other consumers think. Click here to read my blog post about The Food Label Movement and learn more about it.

Do you care about nutrition labels? Are they important to you?

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Please let me know if you want to get involved with The Food Label Movement. It would be wonderful if we could have several other marches going on in other cities on the same day that we do our march in Winnipeg (the date will be some time in the summer of 2011, to be confirmed).

So far we have over 60 signatures for our Food Label Movement petition to improve nutrition labels on food products. We’re shooting for 1,000 signatures within a year – sign your name if you haven’t already!

I wanted to share some of the comments left on the petition:

I want to see food labels better EVERYWHERE!

I’m very happy to see movement from Canadian activists making Care2 a platform for our pledges, too. I agree that the food labels could be much more informative and easier to understand. I detest the euphemisms that the companies use to camouflage the ‘unattractive’ ingredients.

Transparency is needed now to keep Canadians healthy. Informed choices are the key to good nutrition. Given the current pandemic of obesity, this is more necessary now than ever.

Fresh food is generally the only healthy choice these days. For those who require packaged/canned foods and are trying to eat healthy it would be much appreciated. The vast majority of people would likely not be health conscious enough to notice a difference and it would not deter their choices. Availability of unhealthy foods will continue to be the major problem for health concerns as well as lack of physical activity.

We need to have more clear labeling on food so that people are more aware of what they are putting in their bodies and can make healthier choices based on informative nutrition labels.

We are at a point where food labeling and marketing needs to work for consumers, not against us!

Consistent serving sizes are important for comparing products. Monitoring of label accuracy is important. Have seen labels as follows: Total carbohydrate: 21g, fibre: 4g, sugar alcohols: 18g, these numbers don’t add up. Labels are inconsistent from product to product- some show fibre content, some don’t. What information does “sugars” give the consumer? Also clear listings of common allergens such as dairy or gluten; a list of ingredients may seem dairy-free but has “natural flavors” which the average consumer may not think of as possibly containing dairy.

It’s fantastic to see people who really care about these issues.

Sign our petition now. Join The Food Label Movement.