Prepackaged food labeling: Strengthening the policy to protect consumers

• Main Author: Black, Dominique Deborah D.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Food—Labeling—Law and legislation; Consumer protection—Philippines; Food and Drug Law
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6645; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/12905/viewcontent/CDTG004886_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

A cursory inspection of supermarkets, groceries and sari-sari stores would reveal that a majority of prepackaged food for sale lack nutritional information. There are prepackaged food that have information about their ingredients but not the nutritional panel itself that explains the percentages of the ingredients in the product; others on the other hand have the nutritional panel but fail to place either all the percentages of the ingredients or all the standard information that are usually found on nutritional panels. There are also instances when prepackaged food would have health claims at the front of the package but these claims are not substantiated by the information at the back of the package or fi ti is, there are other ingredients contained in the food that is even more harmful. Grounded on this premise, manufacturers of prepackaged food owe ti to them consumers to come up with complete and reliable information of their respective products so that their consumers can make informed choices. This paper seeks to determine the ways in which the consumers' rights can be strengthened.