Stating The Obvious
Food labels, while essential and informative, are often amusing in their painful obviousness. Like when your bar of Hazelnut Cadbury Dairymilk says "May Contain Nuts" on the wrapper. But a recent purchase from Marks and Spencer really took the cake.
M&S have a new range called Eat Well, with over 1,000 products that are nutritionally balanced and contain no artificial flavourings, colours or sweeteners. In order to distinguish them from their delectable melting chocolate puddings and highly addictive caramel shortbreads, all Eat Well products are marked by a bold sunflower logo.
M&S seem keen to let us know they're flogging healthy stuff too, but are we really living in an age where we need a little sticker to tell us a potato doesn't contain any colours or sweeteners? Plus a wee note that you really shouldn't eat the sticker?
Next thing we'll see Suitable For Vegetarians or FAT FREE labels splashed across a bunch of celery.
Comments
You wouldn't believe how many products in the U.S. used to carry the proud proclamation: "cholesterol free!" Things like beans, bread, olive oil, tofu, and yeah, probably celery...
1 · Posted by Melissa on April 29, 2006 08:45 PM
Celery, and numerous other fruits/veggies, already have FAT FREE labels here in the US...sad but true!
2 · Posted by Lora on April 30, 2006 01:54 AM
If you shouldn't eat the sticker, what does it contain?
3 · Posted by Pene on April 30, 2006 05:19 AM
I've seen far worse stickers .
4 · Posted by Lara on April 30, 2006 09:44 AM
I saw "Warning, contains milk" on a pot of cream the other day - I should jolly well hope so!
My other half is allergic to most nuts, so we are inured to the fact that any foodstuff you care to name may, apparently "contain nut traces". If he actually avoided everything that says so, there'd be nothing left.
It's not that we're playing Allergen Roulette, just that if the manufacturers stick the warning on absolutely everything for fear of getting sued, it becomes meaningless. So far, he hasn't had a single reaction from any advertised "traces", and several from things in restaurants which the waiting staff (no doubt in perfect certainty) assured us had no nuts in.
I don't think potatoes contain any nuts.
5 · Posted by Kirsten on May 1, 2006 03:19 PM
its a good laugh :)
6 · Posted by Catesa on May 2, 2006 11:05 AM
It's like a lot of the labels over here in the U.S. on things like chicken: "A naturally low carbohydrate food." It makes me glad that the nanny state and the food police are working together now.
7 · Posted by Debra on May 5, 2006 01:47 PM
I once bought a mango from Safeway which had a label on it with eating instructions. They said: "Place mango flat side down and cut a thick slice as near to the stone as possible. Turn over and repeat. Cut into squares or eat from skin. Wash before eating." I didn't think that this was hugely impressive as a piece of communication.
8 · Posted by Isabelle on May 6, 2006 12:42 AM
It's like slimline tonic.
I never think of tonic water as being a big bad fat bearing evil thing.
Chips, yes. Tonic water, no.
9 · Posted by amyjames on May 7, 2006 09:41 AM