Canadian food labelling policies: reflection of a technical-scientific hegemony to a utility computing service?

The presence of food additives, sweeteners., trans fat and salt must all be indicated on the labels of pre-packed food products but what criteria guide the regulatory authorities in their decision to give priority to one kind of information over another ? Does the general public have any input ? To answer these questions, two Canadian regulatory fields connected with food labelling provide the basis for an analysis: (1) regulation of the labelling of genetically modified foodstuffs which, contrary to the wishes of the population, makes labelling voluntary rather than. compulsory, and (2) regulation of the labelling of allergens which, in keeping with the wishes of Canadians, requires companies to indicate the presence of certain allergenic ingredients on their labels. We observe that the current Canadian policy on food labelling reflects a utilitarian calculation by the government in power: both the economic interests of the agrifood industry and the collective wellbeing are taken into account in labelling decisions. However, it appears that the collective interest is determined more on the basis on scientific (and economic) data than on citizens' wishes. Is science, often produced by the industry itself, used to support or legitimize the utilitarian position by promoting the idea that citizens' wishes are neither reasonable nor rational? if this is the case, then scientists are still playing and in fact, given that scientific data is increasingly accessible, playing more than ever before a determining social role that Antonio Gramsci would call hegemonic.