HOW SAVVY ARE YOU WITH FOOD LABELS

Tips for procuring and maintaining kitchen inventory:

1. Shop for food items once in a month. Yearly purchases pose problem of safe storage. Weekly purchases demand more time and energy.

2. Go to a retailer where there is movement of goods and fresh stock comes in at shorter time intervals.

3. Look for best before date for all food items.

4. Look for Food Certification for processed foods, especially, jams, jellies, ketchups, noodles, soups, squashes, canned vegetables / fruits, spicy pastes, chicken, butter, cream, paneer, bread, pickles, fruit juices, etc.

5. Empty in jars only those food items intended for immediate use. Items for later use can be stored in original package so that the date of expiry can be checked just before using.

6. Items such as spice powders, pastes, baking powder, yeast, corn flour, custard powder, etc. that are used in small quantities and which are used occasionally, can be sealed / tied and placed back in the original packaging so that the date of expiry can be checked when intended to use later.

7. Any food item that has exceeded best before date has to directly find place in the garbage bin without compromise.

Now If have more energy left to go ahead read this:

Purchase of groceries for the home is one big task for all households. The usual thought that comes to our minds when we think of purchase of groceries is the housewives complaining of their husbands about forgetting one or more things or not getting sufficient quantity of a particular item or changing the favorite brand, in spite of ritually keeping the lengthy list in the shirt pocket. There is something more than this when it comes to procurement of food items for the family. I wonder how many people care to look at the label while purchasing food items?

People in India are yet to get into the culture of looking at the labels for food items. At the most, people might look at the MRP (maximum retail price) on the label to make comparisons between the retailers and to conclude who sells at cheaper rates. But one should know that Food Labels give information on ingredients, nutritional information, health claims, food certification, vegetarian/non-vegetarian logo, date of manufacture, place of manufacture and best before date apart from MRP.

If I ask anybody if they have looked at the label anytime before they purchased a food item to ensure safety, I am sure very few would answer in the affirmative. If not all the details on the label, a quick look at the best before date ensures you are buying a safe food. Agreed, people procuring items from food retailers located in one of the the largest malls in the city can be sure they are not supplied sub-standard stuff. What about the bread, chocolates and the soft drinks that we often buy from the shop in our street corner? In most cases even the seller is not aware of the need to look at the best before date.

In India, the Ministry of Food Processing Industry is responsible for giving license to processed food products and any processed food with FPO (Fruit Products Order) logo on the label ensures that safety standards of the food have been taken care of in terms of added preservatives, colors and method of processing. The PFA (Prevention of Food adulteration Act) under Ministry of Health takes care of use of permitted ingredients, safety limits, weights and measures and safety standards. But are we, the consumers, looking for the FPO logo or any other food certification on the processed foods, especially the chocolates, ice-creams, biscuits, wafers, chips and fried foods that are flooding the market?

People should be aware of the consequences of being ignorant of food certification and labeling. Consumption of foods without certification or consumption of food items after best before date may not have severe health implications in all the cases. Some raw food ingredients might just end up in losing some of the functional properties after the best before date mentioned on the label. The trouble with using such items in cooking is that they do not yield the desired end product. However, consumption of perishable foods including processed fruit and vegetable products, dairy products, poultry and meat products after the best before date mentioned on the label is sure to cause minor health ailments such as headache, dizziness, vomiting and diarrhea.

While discussions are going on in the scientific community for making nutrition labeling of foods mandatory in India to enable the consumer to get adequate nutrition, I personally feel there is a long way to go for Nutrition Labeling in India. Before the consumer attempts to look at the Nutrition facts and tries to understand them, the habit of looking at best before date and food certification is to be inculcated in every consumer to assure safe food consumption and healthy society.

Contribution: Dr. K Lakshmi