Toban Black

Rob Smart on his blog -
“Food Marketing: Impacts on Consumer Choice”

——-

Jim Hightower on recently introduced “Smart Choice” labelling -

“The industry says that this seal of approval is all about helping today’s busy shoppers save time. No need to read those tedious lists of ingredients on the backs of food boxes, bottles, jars and cans, for the simple green checkmark is your one-glance reassurance that you’re making the smart nutritional choice.”

“You know, smart choices like Froot Loops, Fudgesicle bars and Frosted Flakes. Yes, all of these sugar-saturated concoctions and many more have received the industry’s good-for-you checkmark.”

“What we have here is yet another corporate PR scam. This supposedly independent nutritional certification program was created and is paid for by such purveyors of unhealthy sugars, fats, salt and chemical additives as Coca-Cola, ConAgra, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Kraft and PepsiCo. Each of them pay fees of up to $100,000 a year to get to use the Smart Choices label, and the fees are based on the total sales of products that bear the label.

This means that the more food items certified by the Smart Choices program, the more money it collects, which gives it an incentive to apply the label liberally. Thus, we get such absurdities as this: ‘light’ mayonnaise, which contains less fat than regular, has been granted the better-for-you check mark; but so has regular mayonnaise!

Still, the industry and its apologists insist that even highly processed foods deserve to get a nutritional star because many of them are fortified with essential vitamins and other nutrients. But, as pointed out by Dr. Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, ‘You could start out with some sawdust, add calcium or Vitamin A and meet the (Smart Choices) criteria.’

Jacobson, who served on the initial panel to develop standards for the Smart Choices program, resigned last year noting ‘(the panel’s) main decisions are determined largely by industry members.’

Among the decisions that troubled him was one that allows the Smart Choices label to be applied, as Jacobson wrote, to foods ‘containing caffeine, food dyes, the preservative BHA, artificial sweeteners (particularly saccharin, aspartame and acesulfume-K) and other additives that are suspected of causing or have been shown to cause adverse reproductive, behavioral, or gastrointestinal effects or cancer.’ ”

——-

Rebecca Smithers on baby foods that aren’t as nutritious as some would expect -

“Cheeseburgers and chocolate biscuits are more nutritious than some of the most popular baby foods from Britain’s leading brands, a report claims.

The food company Heinz comes under fire in the research which found that Farley’s rusks –- a classic weaning food –- contained more sugar than chocolate digestives, while its mini cheese biscuits, aimed at toddlers, contained more saturated fat per 100g than a McDonald’s quarter pounder burger with cheese.

The survey by the Children’s Food Campaign of 107 foods marketed for consumption by babies and young children –- all bought from mainstream British supermarkets – shows that a high proportion of these foods are high in saturated fat, salt and sugar.”

——-

Here’s another example of how food marketing can come before health -

Strawberry and chocolate peanut Curves snack bars — alongside other snack products

Not so long ago, “Curves” just was a chain of gyms. (To be more specific: “Curves” once was just a chain of smaller gyms for women.)

Why are they now selling sugary treats — with General Mills?
To make a buck; that’s why.

The “Curves” snacks are just one example of capitalist expansionism, in the pursuit of further profits and market share. The “Curves” snacks are a more extreme case of frenzied expansionism, since how the credibility of the company — as a supposed outlet of health and fitness — has been sold off in the process.

Flavoured “All Bran” snack bars are another such example. Chocolate and honey have been added to different “All Bran” bars to try to attract more consumers — even as those sugary products still are presented as “All Bran” bars. (Here is the company’s Dark Chocolate Chip “All Bran” bar web page.)