Have you really stopped and looked at the labels you see in the grocery store lately? ?Organic?, ?Non-GMO?, ?Gluten-Free?, ?Grass-Fed?, and ?Free-Range? are just some of the many marketing blitzes we are being bombarded within the aisles. How much of it is genuine, and how much of it could be used to fertilize the back 40?
Just as recently as a decade ago, the average consumer only worried about three things; convenience, cost, and taste. However, now those are just some of the reasons consumers are making the choices that they are.
Jeff Canavan is with the United States Department of Agriculture?s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). He talks about the increases in labeling that we have seen over the past 30 years.
The service is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the labels and verifying that the labels are correct. Canavan says that any product wanting to apply these labels to their products need to go through an approval process. FSIS inspectors have no problem monitoring the products once they are taken to facilities for harvest and inspection but verifying the authenticity of the label back at the farm level takes a little more leg work.
Canavan says the consumer can feel confident that the labels they see on their products are accurate. If it says, ?antibiotic-free?, you can feel assured that it is. Whether or not the label is necessary or just fluff to give the consumer a warm and fuzzy feeling is a completely different topic.
