Three expert tricks to avoid getting confused by food labeling, according to the nation’s biggest experts

“Supermarket shopping is an everyday activity fraught with pitfalls.” And we don’t say that; He says this in his latest book, Laura CaorsiWho is probably the person who has dedicated the most time to explaining and re-interpreting the world of food labeling in Spain.

Fortunately, Caorsi has three strategies for getting the most out of labeling and surviving the supermarket. And they are not the same

Don’t call it a ‘supermarket’, call it a ‘jungle of misinformation’.

Caorsi explains it himself An interview at DAP“The big food industry has the time, the resources and the money to study the law, to know how it works, to think about the messages they’re going to print on the packaging… (…) We have no idea. About what the laws are like, not how they work, not about their scope, not about what the language is like and, moreover, we read in haste, with little time, (…) exhausted, running to another medium.”

“In the end it’s not just that you’re buying something that’s not healthy thinking it’s healthy, but sometimes you’re buying something that has a certain quality ingredient in it and it deserves that price and it turns out they don’t have it” continued. In short, urban myths, marketing ploys and all manner of corporate interests make the shelves a veritable jungle of misinformation.

What can we do to “save ourselves”?

Answer for Caorsi Clear: Learn to read and interpret food labels. So clear that you posted’Excellent food‘, is an essential guide to learning how to do this. However, he gives us three great tips for beating the commercial tricks and knowing what you’re buying.

Fortunately, in general, all marketing strategies in the industry focus on the food front. It is the most visible and therefore, the one that allows the most impact. Caorsi suggests, instead, looking at the back or side of the container. The legal name of the food, list of ingredients and nutritional information must be present there. They are our allies.

One: Start with the product’s legal name.

Commercial (or whatever the “fantasy” name is, Caorsi calls it), the food must have a legal name. And, as soon as we get used to it, it gives us many clues.

Miguel Ayuso explained“Seeing a ‘guacamole sauce’, one might think it has something to do with the famous Mexican dish, but its real name is ‘avocado flavored sauce’ or ‘table sauce with vegetables (27.8%) and cheese’, leading us to suspect that, Presumably, it doesn’t even contain avocado.

Caorsi gives many more examples in his book: “Grated Mozzarella Flavor” which is actually a “coconut oil based food preparation suitable for vegans” or “fillets merlvza” that Actually a 100% plant-based fish fillet-style product coated with soy protein and extra virgin olive oil. The legal name removes many doubts.

Two: Focus on the ingredients list.

Caorsi explainedThere are two great marketing strategies that relate to ingredients: those that seek to highlight the things we like, and those that seek to emphasize that there is nothing in the product that we don’t like.

Legally, if something is advertised on the front, it must be on the ingredients list. But only here you put the correct amount (in fact, if they are highlighted on the packaging, they should appear with percentages next to them). Otherwise, the elements will appear in a list ordered from greatest to least current.

In general, Caorsi explains in his book, it is impossible to understand the food list well. Not only can the same product have many names, but the list can contain compound ingredients (something that makes it difficult to understand well). What is clear is that it helps us see what ingredients actually exist and in what amounts.

Three: Use nutrition facts as supplements.

Generally, consumers look to nutritional information to determine whether one product is better than another. The problem is that it’s more complicated than the rest and usually confuses more than it clarifies.

“The best way to understand what food is like is to look specifically at the ingredient list,” Explained Caorsi in DAP. “If you find low-quality ingredients in the top ranks, or ones with fat that’s not of great interest, refined flour, things like that, then you say, look, I might as well give that up, or, I might as well eat that, but I know what I’m eating. .”

Picture | Charles Gow

In BDtechsupport | Food labels should look like this if they want to reflect their true ingredients