In today’s fast paced world, people often resort to convenience foods. The trouble with this, is that the food companies deceive people by making them think they are getting something, rather healthy. As consumers, we trust that the companies are accurately labeling our food with its contents. Consumers have been led to believe that a “diet” product is better than “regular”, when in fact it can be worse. Companies also use key words on the front labels to catch consumer’s eyes, in the hopes that they will not look closely at the full nutrition label. Consumer beware! Ethics come into play when a consumer is led to believe they are buying healthy options. We will analyze how ethical behaviors play a role in these lies, and why it is
…show more content…
Over the years, manufacturers began to mislead consumers in regards to what their products really contained. They have some leeway when it comes to what is acceptable by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA allows for a “10 percent margin of error”, and it does not violate federal law unless it is more than 20 percent off (Mercola, 2010, p. 2). What does this mean? Well if a product label stated it had 500 calories, it could really contain 580, and with the margin for error, it may bring the calories up to …show more content…
What some people do not understand, is the word “natural” is not defined in the food industry. Which means that no one is regulating any requirements for manufacturers to be able to place “natural” on their labels. An example of this is Ben & Jerry’s ice cream who claims to have “All Natural” ingredients in 48 of their 53 ice cream flavors. When in reality contain ingredients such as, “fake vanilla, alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil” (Gosselin, 2010, p. 1). According to Everyday Health, “there’s no strict standard. Food companies are free to interpret the word ‘natural’ broadly – too broadly…” (www.everydayhealth.com, 2014, p. 2). Is it right for an ice cream manufacturer to be able to label their product “natural”, when it is filled with sugar and other artificial flavors in it, just to try and get the consumer’s attention and hopefully a
Over the years, manufacturers began to mislead consumers in regards to what their products really contained. They have some leeway when it comes to what is acceptable by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA allows for a “10 percent margin of error”, and it does not violate federal law unless it is more than 20 percent off (Mercola, 2010, p. 2). What does this mean? Well if a product label stated it had 500 calories, it could really contain 580, and with the margin for error, it may bring the calories up to …show more content…
What some people do not understand, is the word “natural” is not defined in the food industry. Which means that no one is regulating any requirements for manufacturers to be able to place “natural” on their labels. An example of this is Ben & Jerry’s ice cream who claims to have “All Natural” ingredients in 48 of their 53 ice cream flavors. When in reality contain ingredients such as, “fake vanilla, alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil” (Gosselin, 2010, p. 1). According to Everyday Health, “there’s no strict standard. Food companies are free to interpret the word ‘natural’ broadly – too broadly…” (www.everydayhealth.com, 2014, p. 2). Is it right for an ice cream manufacturer to be able to label their product “natural”, when it is filled with sugar and other artificial flavors in it, just to try and get the consumer’s attention and hopefully a