7 Ways The Food Companies Fool You
Most consumers take just 4 seconds to browse over food packaging before making a choice.
That's the window of opportunity a manufacturer has to convince you to buy their product. Here's how they do it:
- Put something wholesome and natural on the front
Fresh fruit, lush meadows, and green trees.
The Reality. That's just a pretty picture - it might have nothing to do with what's in the packet. - Buzzword of the month
At the moment it seems to be "whole grain" and "omega-3" and "fortified". Any savvy marketer will make sure they list these buzzwords in bold: front and center.
The Reality: The actual content of the whole grain may be minimal - and can you really believe that the possible health benefits of the latest buzzword will outweigh the other junk in the food? - Big wrappers
Looks like value for money yeah?
The Reality: How many times have you ripped open a food wrapper only to find you've paid for about 1/3 air. Maybe manufacturers need to start listing the amount of "air" on the nutritional label. - Keep changing the product design
More colors, more funky-stylee designs - whatever it takes to make you think that the same old food has suddenly become altogether different.
The Reality: Same food, different box. - Ticks and bullet point lists
Free from artificial flavors "TICK!" Free from preservatives "TICK!" Baked not Fried "TICK!".
The Reality: Who cares. The 3 main ingredients in this particular item (a cracker) are refined white flour, vegetable fat, and sugar (what is is about those three ingredients?) - Bite-sized. Mini-sized. Snack-sized
Many popular food items also have a mini-me version. Surely that's got to be good for the waistline?
The Reality: You probably end up eating twice or three times as much of the mini-versions - because - hey - they're so small! and easy to eat! - It's organic
It's great to choose organic food over the non-organic counterpart - but organic candy? Or what about organic baked beans - complete with added sugar and 456mg of sodium.
The Reality: 3,500 calories of organic food is still 3,500 calories.
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This is a problem with our busy lives. I can't remember how many times I've come home with yogurt or something from the store and not even noticed that the sell-by date won't allow me time to use all the items in the pack.
Nowadays I judge my shopping by how few products I have in my basket that a chef wouldn't use in recipes - the more basic the food the better - no additives and and very little packaging to read.
Janice
ReplyJanice, you are right. When you buy vegetables and fruit and other stuff like that, staples, there is no need to look at the packaging, so the less you buy processed food, the less time you'll spend shopping.
ReplyOn point #3: They do list the weight on the package and 10 oz of chips is 10 oz of chips, remember air is weightless! Believe me, they would rather sell you a higher percentage of chips than air if they could, the higher volume of the package increases shipping costs. Usually that "air" is there for a reason.
ReplyYou left off the thing that irks me the most--servings per package! I recently bought a protein soy smoothie drink that was obviously packaged as a single-serving drink in a small bottle. The front even said "with 19 grams of protein!" I looked at the calorie count and it seemed reasonable, so I bought it. Then I looked again and realized the protein count on the label said only "9 grams." The nutritional information on the label was based on TWO servings!! Now I had to double that calorie count that seemed so reasonable...
ReplyI probably spend about 10 seconds, the amount of time to pick up the product and quickly scan the nutritional information for what I'm looking for. Some of those items may make it more likely that I pick up a product, but I don't actually buy ANYTHING until I check out the stats.
ReplyLet's face it. Corporate America is out to get you. They play with the serving sizes to make things look more nutritional. They hide ingredients in long chemical names that nobody knows what they mean. They package in larger packages to make you think you are getting more. It is just how it works. You just have to be careful and really consider what you buy.
ReplyI usually stick with fresh fruits and veggies and other minimally processed things at the store. The packaging is basically just a clear baggie so I can see what I'm buying. I don't like being tricked, so I scrutinize labels very carefully when I shop.
Right now, the big buzzword is "Trans Fat Free". Our food science journal even says that if that's written on your package, your sales of that product are probably going to increase by a lot.
ReplyI agree with the serving size comment from Marydaz. I've bought bottled drinks that you would definitely eat in a single serving but when I checked the package each bottle was 1.4 servings or something ludicrous.
As for the rest of the bogus claims of 99% fat free (on lollies = 90% sugar), or the all natural confectionery company (what's natural about refined sugar?) don't get me started
ReplyJust curious about Omega-3. Is there any evidence it is better to get it in the diet than in pills like GNC or Vitabase sells?
Reply@Matt
ReplyUsually when a package states 'omega3-inside' or whatever it is artificially injected and not naturally occuring meaning that it is probably no better than a pill from GNC. You need to be more concerned about the quantity of omega in the product and the ratio of omega 6 to 3. I'm not sure about GNC or Vitabase omega products but I personally will only take pharmaceutical grade fish oil that contains at least 65% omega3 with a ratio of 2:1 epa to dha. Natural factors has a cheap and reliable product that you and everyone should check out. I only take one pill a day and notice increased mood stability and overall mental agility/performance.
You talk about healthy eating but promote advertisers like (thinin4).... come on now !!!
ReplyThe one that really gets me riled is saying "0 Grams of Trans Fat per serving!" on the package, and on the ingredients list there is hydrogenated vegetable oil! I mean, do they really think we're that stupid?
ReplyDon't you have a consumer watchdog in The USA? Or are they paid by the producers?
ReplyI totally agree wih your article; The problem as you so rightly pointed out is of course we don't have time to read every thing we buy before we get home- and then we are too damm hungry and busy. Thanks for the reminder.
The Baldchemist
You left off the thing that irks me the most--servings per package! I recently bought a protein soy smoothie drink that was obviously packaged as a single-serving drink in a small bottle. The front even said "with 19 grams of protein!" I looked at the calorie count and it seemed reasonable, so I bought it. Then I looked again and realized the protein count on the label said only "9 grams." The nutritional information on the label was based on TWO servings!! Now I had to double that calorie count that seemed so reasonable...
ReplyThe one that really gets me riled is saying "0 Grams of Trans Fat per serving!" on the package, and on the ingredients list there is hydrogenated vegetable oil! I mean, do they really think we're that stupid?
ReplyHi Matt, Just wanted to comment on your comment. Yes it can be better to get omega-3 from the diet for the reason being if you don't know where the source is coming from in pill form and if you are not sure if it is tested for potency and purity then you are much better off eating a piece of wild Alaskan salmon. I worked for GNC for years and yes there are some brands out there you can definitely trust, just make sure that it states on the bottle where the cod liver oil or fish oil comes from, that it does not contain any PCB's, and that it is checked for potency and purity.
ReplyGreat List and all true! There are so many products out there that claim to be healthy based upon their description on the front of the box, but when you turn the box around and look at the ingredients it's a whole other story!
Reply