One thing that irritates me is companies that print their ingredient lists in ways that are difficult to read.

I may need to be bringing a magnifying glass and a flashlight to the health food (or grocery) store to figure out what ingredients a product contain.

Usually it from colors that are difficult for to tell apart (blue type on a blue background...). Sometime it is a size of type, sometimes it is where the ingredients are printed on the package (perhaps within a fold, so I need to undo glue and partially take the package apart to read the ingredients).

For those concerend with food labeling, here is a report that covers these and other issues:  http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food_labeling_chaos_report.pdf

This very thing bugs me lately too. We have a fairly new health food store near us. I have been buying Brown Rice Pasta, it was written in large letters on the front. One batch was very pale, that brought me to looking at the fine print on the back. It is a mix of white and brown. Guess the last batch was mostly white. I wrote and complained to them but did not receive a response yet. Another topic, I also bought very expensive brown basmati and got it home to find it was just about to expire any day. I brought it back. She was very rude with me. With my sensitive system and if I am going to pay a high price for something, I want it to be fresh. She gave in and gave my money back. Another time I noticed she had all the natural bread right in the window on display in the sun. It was hot to touch it. I told her it was not good for the bread. Much of her products are in direct sunlight. Supplements should not be in heat and direct sunlight.I got to looking closer and found much of her products were expired. She obviously does not know how to run a business. When things are too close to expiry she should have specials. Never see specials there. I have been a self appointed food and product police for some time now. I let companies know and I speak up for the people. Most companies are good about it. If we don't speak up, nothing will change.

I stopped buying supplements from a vitamin shop because the afternoon sun beamed right across the entire row of shelves where the proprietor kept the ones I used. It was uncomfortably hot just standing in front of the shelves. What are people thinking anyway?

People are wasting their time trying to intimidate me if I have to take something back that is not good for one reason or another. I even took a big bunch of broccoli back the other week because I was tired of the stuff spoiling as soon as I got it home! I'm not buying organic that is in worse shape than the stuff that is half the price. How sick can we get eating mold!

It is really hard to find pimentos here. I did find a supplier but they stopped carrying it. Found another. They tasted nothing like the ones I had, they tasted like a hotter pepper. Called the company and they said they were a bell pepper. I asked why it was marked pimento then. She had no idea. You just never know what you are really eating.

Quoted Text

One thing that irritates me is companies that print their ingredient lists in ways that are difficult to read.

I may need to be bringing a magnifying glass and a flashlight to the health food (or grocery) store to figure out what ingredients a product contain.

I share the same sentiments. It also bothers me reading those labels in every product I bought since most of the letters there were so small and even the way they printed it,not so nice.

naomi, welcome!

let us know your blood type

It occured to me the other day that the majority of what I eat should not even require a label, but perhaps a produce sku number or a bulk label tag.  

Was just musing about this in the wee hours this morning... I agree - labels so should  be clear enough to read??!! Also, some companies were found to be using old labels (to save on reprinting I guess) even though their "recipe" had changed

Imo also, all ingredients should be in the list - if list gets too long, they could always provide a leaflet?! I guess they think ppl will just check on line but not everyone has the time, nor are websites always updated enough

Some ingredients, if under a certain ppm, do not have to be stated?! Use of sulphites for example, does not even have to always be declared...but which "god of manufacturing" makes the decision on what level affects the individual (we are all different)??!! Sometimes they could be playing with people's lives ok rant over...

Quoted from Spring

People are wasting their time trying to intimidate me if I have to take something back that is not good for one reason or another. I even took a big bunch of broccoli back the other week because I was tired of the stuff spoiling as soon as I got it home! I'm not buying organic that is in worse shape than the stuff that is half the price. How sick can we get eating mold!

Ummm very!!! But yes we should be taking things back - that is the only way we can hope these companies will change their practices!!

Quoted from PrincessMia

This very thing bugs me lately too. We have a fairly new health food store near us. I have been buying Brown Rice Pasta, it was written in large letters on the front. One batch was very pale, that brought me to looking at the fine print on the back. It is a mix of white and brown. Guess the last batch was mostly white. I wrote and complained to them but did not receive a response yet. Another topic, I also bought very expensive brown basmati and got it home to find it was just about to expire any day. I brought it back. She was very rude with me. With my sensitive system and if I am going to pay a high price for something, I want it to be fresh. She gave in and gave my money back. Another time I noticed she had all the natural bread right in the window on display in the sun. It was hot to touch it. I told her it was not good for the bread. Much of her products are in direct sunlight. Supplements should not be in heat and direct sunlight.I got to looking closer and found much of her products were expired. She obviously does not know how to run a business. When things are too close to expiry she should have specials. Never see specials there. I have been a self appointed food and product police for some time now. I let companies know and I speak up for the people. Most companies are good about it. If we don't speak up, nothing will change.

I agree - she should never have been rude to you - Is she the owner or simply the manager? If the latter, then you can get her company's contact details & go over her head?!

Was the bread in plastic that was in the window? If so that is even worse?! As well as chemicals from the plastic being transferred to the product, wouldn't the bread also be getting stale by being overheated & drying out?

The HFS I used to work at, would never have specials on soon to expire  stock - their concern was that it would bring people in that only bargain shopped - but surely better some extra customers that way than throwing the stuff away??!!

Quoted from Possum

I agree - she should never have been rude to you - Is she the owner or simply the manager? If the latter, then you can get her company's contact details & go over her head?!

Was the bread in plastic that was in the window? If so that is even worse?! As well as chemicals from the plastic being transferred to the product, wouldn't the bread also be getting stale by being overheated & drying out?

The HFS I used to work at, would never have specials on soon to expire  stock - their concern was that it would bring people in that only bargain shopped - but surely better some extra customers that way than throwing the stuff away??!!

She was the owner and the bags were plastic. The bread was sweating. You could see beads of water inside the bag. Bacteria would grow quite quickly.

The rice company wrote me back today. They will look into the problem.

What bugs me too is companies will say that there is not enough of a bad substance in the product to do you harm. What many people don't think about, if this is the case for every product you eat, it is accumulating.