Food and Beverage Packaging May2010 : Page 6

Editor’sNote HOW NUTRITIOUS IS THAT CAN OF WORMS? W hen I was a kid, I noticed mysterious ads appear- ing in Life magazine. (Dating myself, I know.) These ads were fulminations against some sort of hypothetical government rating system for consumer products. These ratings were supposedly going to appear on all packages or price tags, judging everything you could buy according to some standardized quality benchmark. The ads, which were placed by some trade group or cham- ber of commerce, railed about how these kinds of judg- ments would deprive consumers of “freedom of choice.” To this day, I don’t know what that was about. No one to my knowl- edge, with the possible exception of Vance Packard (the pre-Boomer Ralph Nader), seriously proposed any such system at that time. But today’s Food and Drug Administration is looking into the possibility of a rating system for food that would deal with nutritional quality. The idea is to have standardized symbols on the front of foods and beverages that would alert consumers to the presence of excessive amounts of “negative nutrients” like fat and sodium. The nonprofit group Institute of Medicine has been holding hearings on this issue and is expected to send recommendations to the FDA later this year. (The UK recently backed away from a similar system, dubbed “traffic light” because it would rate nutrients with red, yellow or green symbols.) Third-party certifications, of course, A front-of-package rating system, at some point, would have to inhibit consumers from buying low-rated items. are nothing new. They’re the subject of this issue’s cover feature. But it’s very dif- ferent when government is the third party, because then everyone’s in the system, whether they want to be or not. The sticky aspect of a front-of-package system that rates nutrition (or any other aspect of quality) is that at some point, it would have to inhibit con- sumers from buying low-rated items. Government messages on pack- ages that discourage people from consuming what’s inside have ap- peared to date only in clearly egregious cases such as cigarettes. I think it should stay that way. Trying to condense a lot of diverse nutritional aspects into a simple good/bad dichotomy opens up a can of worms: heavy-handedness on the government side, system- gaming on the industry one. At the same time, the industry would do well to heed the senti- ments that are feeding the push for such a system. Concerns over obesity and sodium consumption aren’t going away, and a dig-in-the- heels response will only bring the red lights closer. F&BP EDITORIAL PAN DEMETRAKAKES Editor pand@bnpmedia.com RICK LINGLE Executive Editor lingler@bnpmedia.com MICHAEL ESCOBEDO Senior Art Director BILL ANTKOWIAK Art Director ADVERTISING MIKE BARR Group Publisher (630) 499-7392 barrm@bnpmedia.com RANDY GREEN Publisher (248) 244-6498 greenr@bnpmedia.com STEVE LIPUT Senior Sales Manager (847) 405-4112 liputs@bnpmedia.com KRISTINA LORIO Inside Sales (249) 786-1579 loriok@bnpmedia.com ERHARDT EISENACHER International Sales +49-228-2499860 info@eisenacher-medien.de CATHERINE WYNN Senior Classified Sales Manager (847) 405-4010 wynnc@bnpmedia.com VINCE MICONI Advertising/Production Manager miconiv@bnpmedia.com AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT KOURTNEY BELL Audience Development Manager ERINN DEEGAN Multimedia Coordinator CAROLYN M. ALEXANDER Audience Audit Coordinator For subscription information or service, please contact Customer Service at: Phone: (847) 763-9534 or Fax: (847) 763-9538 E-mail: FBP@halldata.com Web: www.foodandbeveragepackaging.com LIST RENTAL Postal contact: ROB LISKA at 800-223-2194 x.726 or robert.liska@edithroman.com Email contact: SHAWN KINGSTON at 800-409-4443 x.828 or shawn.kingston@epostdirect.com CORPORATE DIRECTORS TIMOTHY A. FAUSCH Publishing JOHN R. SCHREI Publishing STEVE M. BEYER Custom Media RITA M. FOUMIA Corporate Strategy SCOTT KESLER Information Technology VINCENT M. MICONI Production LISA L. PAULUS Finance MICHAEL T. POWELL Creative HOLLY BANKS Marketing NIKKI SMITH Directories MARLENE J. WITTHOFT Human Resources EMILY PATTEN Conferences & Events BETH A. SUROWIEC Clear Seas Research BNP MEDIA HELPS PEOPLE SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITH SUPERIOR INFORMATION For Volume Reprints Contact JILL L. DEVRIES Corporate Reprint Manager Phone: 248-224-1726 Fax: 248-244-3934 E-mail: devriesj@bnpmedia.com ’sNote HOW NUTRITIOUS IS THAT CAN OF WORMS? W hen I was a kid, I noticed mysterious ads appear- ing in Life magazine. (Dating myself, I know.) These ads were fulminations against some sort of hypothetical government rating system for consumer products. These ratings were supposedly going to appear on all packages or price tags, judging everything you could buy according to some standardized quality benchmark. The ads, which were placed by some trade group or cham- ber of commerce, railed about how these kinds of judg- ments would deprive consumers of “freedom of choice.” To this day, I don’t know what that was about. No one to my knowl- edge, with the possible exception of Vance Packard (the pre-Boomer Ralph Nader), seriously proposed any such system at that time. But today’s Food and Drug Administration is looking into the possibility of a rating system for food that would deal with nutritional quality. The idea is to have standardized symbols on the front of foods and beverages that would alert consumers to the presence of excessive amounts of “negative nutrients” like fat and sodium. The nonprofit group Institute of Medicine has been holding hearings on this issue and is expected to send recommendations to the FDA later this year. (The UK recently backed away from a similar system, dubbed “traffic light” because it would rate nutrients with red, yellow or green symbols.) Third-party certifications, of course, A front-of-package rating system, at some point, would have to inhibit consumers from buying low-rated items. are nothing new. They’re the subject of this issue’s cover feature. But it’s very dif- ferent when government is the third party, because then everyone’s in the system, whether they want to be or not. The sticky aspect of a front-of-package system that rates nutrition (or any other aspect of quality) is that at some point, it would have to inhibit con- sumers from buying low-rated items. Government messages on pack- ages that discourage people from consuming what’s inside have ap- peared to date only in clearly egregious cases such as cigarettes. I think it should stay that way. Trying to condense a lot of diverse nutritional aspects into a simple good/bad dichotomy opens up a can of worms: heavy-handedness on the government side, system- gaming on the industry one. At the same time, the industry would do well to heed the senti- ments that are feeding the push for such a system. Concerns over obesity and sodium consumption aren’t going away, and a dig-in-the- heels response will only bring the red lights closer. F&BP EDITORIAL PAN DEMETRAKAKES Editor pand@bnpmedia.com RICK LINGLE Executive Editor lingler@bnpmedia.com MICHAEL ESCOBEDO Senior Art Director BILL ANTKOWIAK Art Director ADVERTISING MIKE BARR Group Publisher (630) 499-7392 barrm@bnpmedia.com RANDY GREEN Publisher (248) 244-6498 greenr@bnpmedia.com STEVE LIPUT Senior Sales Manager (847) 405-4112 liputs@bnpmedia.com KRISTINA LORIO Inside Sales (249) 786-1579 loriok@bnpmedia.com ERHARDT EISENACHER International Sales +49-228-2499860 info@eisenacher-medien.de CATHERINE WYNN Senior Classified Sales Manager (847) 405-4010 wynnc@bnpmedia.com VINCE MICONI Advertising/Production Manager miconiv@bnpmedia.com AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT KOURTNEY BELL Audience Development Manager ERINN DEEGAN Multimedia Coordinator CAROLYN M. ALEXANDER Audience Audit Coordinator For subscription information or service, please contact Customer Service at: Phone: (847) 763-9534 or Fax: (847) 763-9538 E-mail: FBP@halldata.com Web: www.foodandbeveragepackaging.com LIST RENTAL Postal contact: ROB LISKA at 800-223-2194 x.726 or robert.liska@edithroman.com Email contact: SHAWN KINGSTON at 800-409-4443 x.828 or shawn.kingston@epostdirect.com CORPORATE DIRECTORS TIMOTHY A. FAUSCH Publishing JOHN R. SCHREI Publishing STEVE M. BEYER Custom Media RITA M. FOUMIA Corporate Strategy SCOTT KESLER Information Technology VINCENT M. MICONI Production LISA L. PAULUS Finance MICHAEL T. POWELL Creative HOLLY BANKS Marketing NIKKI SMITH Directories MARLENE J. WITTHOFT Human Resources EMILY PATTEN Conferences & Events BETH A. SUROWIEC Clear Seas Research BNP MEDIA HELPS PEOPLE SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITH SUPERIOR INFORMATION For Volume Reprints Contact JILL L. DEVRIES Corporate Reprint Manager Phone: 248-224-1726 Fax: 248-244-3934 E-mail: devriesj@bnpmedia.com Editor Editor pand@bnpmedia.com 6 FOOD&BEVERAGE PACKAGING MAY 2010 WWW. FOODANDBEVERAGEPA CKA GING .COM How to contact FOOD&BEVERAGEPACKAGING Mail: 155 Pfingsten Rd., Suite 205 Deerfield IL 60015 Phone: (847) 405-4000 Fax: (847) 405-4100 Web: www.foodandbeveragepackaging.com

Editor’s Note

HOW NUTRITIOUS IS THAT CAN OF WORMS? When I was a kid, I noticed mysterious ads appearing in Life magazine. (Dating myself, I know.) These ads were fulminations against some sort of hypothetical government rating system for consumer products. These ratings were supposedly going to appear on all packages or price tags, judging everything you could buy according to some standardized quality benchmark. The ads, which were placed by some trade group or chamber of commerce, railed about how these kinds of judgments would deprive consumers of “freedom of choice.” To this day, I don’t know what that was about. No one to my knowledge, with the possible exception of Vance Packard (the pre-Boomer Ralph Nader), seriously proposed any such system at that time. But today’s Food and Drug Administration is looking into the possibility of a rating system for food that would deal with nutritional quality. The idea is to have standardized symbols on the front of foods and beverages that would alert consumers to the presence of excessive amounts of “negative nutrients” like fat and sodium. The nonprofit group Institute of Medicine has been holding hearings on this issue and is expected to send recommendations to the FDA later this year. (The UK recently backed away from a similar system, dubbed “traffic light” because it would rate nutrients with red, yellow or green symbols.) Third-party certifications, of course, are nothing new. They’re the subject of this issue’s cover feature. But it’s very different when government is the third party, because then everyone’s in the system, whether they want to be or not. The sticky aspect of a front-of-package system that rates nutrition (or any other aspect of quality) is that at some point, it would have to inhibit consumers from buying low-rated items. Government messages on packages that discourage people from consuming what’s inside have appeared to date only in clearly egregious cases such as cigarettes. I think it should stay that way. Trying to condense a lot of diverse nutritional aspects into a simple good/bad dichotomy opens up a can of worms: heavy-handedness on the government side, systemgaming on the industry one. At the same time, the industry would do well to heed the sentiments that are feeding the push for such a system. Concerns over obesity and sodium consumption aren’t going away, and a dig-in-theheels response will only bring the red lights closer.

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