A critical accessory while visiting the market these days seem to be my reading glasses – to decipher the fine print that crowds labels on food and other consumer products.

Not just the fine print, but you may even need to read between the lines, since what you see is not quite what you get!

For instance, labels that read “no added MSG”, “no added sugar” or “against animal testing” do not, in fact, give you the assurance you seek from them. On the contrary, they subtly suggest that there just may be the flavouring agent MSG (mono sodium glutamate) or sugar in the product you just bought, though the company did not actively add it.

And how does that happen? Well, as Nestle’s Maggi noodles explained to consumers recently, the naturally occurring flavouring agent is high in foods such as tomatoes or mushrooms.

Deciphering labels gets more exasperating when it comes to the “against animal testing” labels. This means the corporate is against animal testing. But, it does not mean that a third party testing the so-labelled product in a different country has not tested the product on an animal.

For that assurance you will have to pick up cosmetics or shampoos etc with the logo of a “leaping bunny” or a symbol that looks like a traffic sign with the image of an animal (rabbit usually) and a cross against it.

These logos assure the consumer that the product has not been tested on an animal anywhere in the chain -- from the time it was a concept in a lab to its ultimate avatar as a product sold to the consumer. Incidentally, very few companies actually commit to this label and sport “not tested on animals” on their packaging.

The art of reading between the lines needs to be invoked again if you buy branded eggs. The difference may be obvious when you buy regular eggs (from hens locked in cages) versus cage-free eggs (from birds not locked in cages).

But it does not end there, as there are “free range eggs” that means the bird is free to roam and is not in an enclosed space.

In fact, the big picture on labels is only beginning to unravel. There are products that claim to be miracle workers as their labels promise to put the energy, vitamins, and many other difficult-to-mention ingredients back into our young, old or tired bodies – as the case may be.

Then there are carbon footprint labels, where you are told the distance the product has travelled and the energy put into getting it to your table. And the debate is only beginning on genetically modified (GM) foods, leaving the labelling discussion not far behind.

Life as we know it is unlikely to be free of labels. But the trick lies in something the Government did about 15 years ago, when it brought in unambiguous red and green dots to differentiate non-vegetarian from vegetarian food. Helpful to both consumer and producer, the message was straightforward – label products, but keep it simple.

Vitamin C is a weekly dose of consumer empowerment.

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