IMPROVING FOOD LABELING - INNOVATIVE WAYS OF LABELING FOOD

Food law, both at the national and EU levels, establishes the rights of consumers to safe food and to accurate and honest information. Labeling helps consumers to make an informed choice while purchasing their foodstuffs. The ingredient list on a food label is the listing of each ingredient in descending order of predominance. Besides the ingredient list placed on the back of a product, the manufacturer also feels free to state compliance with certain standards used in the manufacturing processes. This paper will investigate how and if all ingredients written on a product influence a consumer's perception of quality. Also this paper will outline the main issues related to labeling and consumer understanding and the use of nutrition labels. This paper will include a systematic review of different reports published worldwide in order to analyze findings. It will examine how users are paying attention to what is written on the product and how much written content affects the perception of quality. The consumers who have purchased a product based on what they read on the back should not be exposed to incomplete or even incorrect information.