When food product companies make off-label versions of their product for the grocery story (e.g. ShopRite brand corn flakes is likely Kellogg's repackaged) is the product usually exactly the same or different somehow? If the latter, in what way and why?
Kelloggs (and other CPGs - consumer packaged goods co) does not use extra capacity to manufacture store brands - that would cannibalize their own sales. There are numerous manufacturers around the globe who may have their own tertiary 'control brands' in market but focus on private label business. These companies are the suppliers of private label cereals, not Kelloggs.These private label manufacturers have R+D staff who work on formulations. Sometimes the manufacturer and staff have worked for the national brand companies and use their knowledge to compete against them. Often they reverse engineer a formula if they are creating a national brand equivalent if they don't already have that institutionalized knowledge.(FWIW corn flakes aren't a great example as they are considered a low margin cereal commodity and knowledge around formulation is commonplace).If you look at a box of cereal, for example, look at the side panel. Does it say 'distributed by' or 'manufactured by'. If the latter, the company owns it's own plants. If the former, the company is working with a copacker to manufacture the product. Some of these copackers offer standard formulas and everyone gets the same product. Others simply manufacture, leaving ingredient purchasing and formula developing to the client (many of whom are the big brands). It would not be uncommon to see a private label product and a national brand product coming out of the same plant. It would be unusual to see them with the same formula. Copackers can have multiple lines or dedicated space exclusively for a customer. In many cases NDAs are in place to protect the customers from having their formulas leaked.In some categories, the commodities offered by a private label brand are identical to the national brand. Again, who and what differs from product to product.
Why do food companies resist labeling food that is GMO?
For the same reason tobacco companies resisted Health Warnings for as long as they could by denying side-effects, obfuscating scientific facts and buying votes.Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are far from benign. The industry has been trying to pass GMO crops as something similar to ...selective breeding. Yet, it is quite a different thing to select the most productive plants and annually gather seeds from them - and excising a gene from a soil …bacterium and then splicing it into a random chromosome of a tomato (with very limited understanding how the new gene is going to wreck havoc in the new genetic environment).Nobody can claim they are safe because nobody knows what the inserted genes do to the transgenic organism (as GMOs are known scientifically) and how fast they can be transferred to our own gut bacteria and to what effect. That is why they are banned in Europe and most of the world.Short of outright banning them, labeling GMO foods is both fair and easy: does this apple or corn or rice have had genes of different organisms inserted into is genome, yes or no? If the consumer is not convinced of their safety he will have the freedom to avoid them. If he is, it will not bother him.Wanting to hide this fact form the consumer in order for him not been able to make an informed decision is fraud. There cannot be another word to describe this. It is fraud.Some decades ago even discussing the possibility of an industry withholding information from the consumer would be preposterous. And we are only discussing this because billions have been paid by lobbyists to buy out political opinion.
What's the difference between the labels K and U on food products?
any company can put the letter K on their product. There are Jewish organizatons that supervise the production of foods to enfore Jewish Kosher Laws. These organizations have trademarked symbols such as the "OU" a U with a circle in it and the Star-K, a star with a K in it. They must have these symbols b/c a company can write kosher on their product, even if it contains pork and cannot be sued for false advertizing because the US government is Constitutionally forbidden from deciding what is kosher and what isnt. Orthodox Jews only eat from these trademarked goods, because legal action is avaliable to ensure they are legit. a superscript p means kosher for Passover a D by the side means Dairy the word "Parve" means neither meat nor dairy (but isnt always written) meat is meat
What does the term "spices" mean on a food label?
If you mean canned foods it is very hard as you need to read the nutrients panels and investigate all they write, and all of the numbers they print If it is the shops products that you just by a scoop of most often if you ask what are used, but often they are packages sent from Head Office Dune.
When a food product label says "distributed by" and the location is in the USA....?
Hi Advice gu,No the product could come from anywhere in the world. Although if it is coming to the UK it should also state the country of origin on it. I hope this helps,all the best. Rab
Why do food companies write “may contain milk”? Shouldn't they know that?
I see the label you have is from Egypt, my experience is in the US, but the food safety laws are likely similar.It means that although milk is not one of the ingredients it was processed in a facility where dairy products are as well. Milk is one of the allergens that is required by federal law to be called out in a label as it is fairly common (as are wheat and soy, which I also see on your label). Minute levels of an allergen are sufficient in some people to elicit an allergic response, which can be very dangerous. Even though the equipment is cleaned between product runs, there are different degrees of cleaning, and only a deep clean is capable of completely removing all traces of the previous product. Deep cleans rarely happen when there’s a product change, and instead it’s cleaned so that the equipment is kept sanitary. It’s similar to labels that say ‘may contain traces of nut’ in that if somebody has an allergy, they want to avoid that particular product.Some of it is the company covering their ass. Some of it is the company following the law. But, primarily, it is warning vulnerable people to avoid the product as it could harm them.
Should unhealthy fast food products be sold with a warning label?
Do your own homework! Lol. For: Save lives, Promote healthy lifestyles, less obesity, promote healthy eating and therefore would push people to buy fresh produce ( support farmers, etc.) Against: Waste of money - its fairly obvious fast food is bad for you, some people are just going to eat it anyway, piss of fast food companies which are immensely powerful, other non fast foods are unhealthy too. Bad list, but I'm lazy.
How come cigarette companies have warning labels but don't have ingredients are nutrinual infomation on them?
The health warnings are mandate by the Federal government, but there is no requirement from any Federal agency to list ingredients, as there is with food and some other products.American Spirit cigarettes do list ingredients in their tobacco (“Tobacco Ingredients: Tobacco & Water”) on every pack, but that is voluntary on the company’s part and highlights the fact that there are no other additives as ingredients—which is good marketing practice on their part.Cigarettes don’t have “nutritional information” on the packages because consumers don’t eat them, nor are they sold as food, nor intended to be used as food. I suppose if you did eat a cigarette, you would get a certain amount of soluble dietary fiber—but I’d rather take Metamucil®.