Food labeling: conformity evaluation with legislation and proposals for improvements

The huge development that has occurred in the food sector generates the necessity of laws regulating the industry in the areas of quality, safety and labeling. However, compliance with legislation is not always observed. The study verified labeling conformity in 13 categories of food products sold i...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Smith, Ana Carolina de Lima, Almeida-Muradian, Ligia Bicudo de
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:Brasil
Institución:Instituto Adolfo Lutz
Repositorio:Revista do Instituto Adolfo Lutz (Online)
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.periodicos.saude.sp.gov.br:article/32501
Acceso en línea:https://periodicos.saude.sp.gov.br/RIAL/article/view/32501
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:food
labeling
legislation
label
consumer
alimento
rotulagem
legislação sanitária
consumidor
Descripción
Sumario:The huge development that has occurred in the food sector generates the necessity of laws regulating the industry in the areas of quality, safety and labeling. However, compliance with legislation is not always observed. The study verified labeling conformity in 13 categories of food products sold in São Paulo city with Brazilian legislation and proposed suggestions for their improvement. Among 52 labels analyzed, 80.8% presented at least one type of non-conformity with legislation and only 19.2% were fully in accordance with the established in the legislation. The category that presented the largest amount of noncompliant items was the food category for practitioners of physical activity. With respect to the number of non-compliant labels, four categories (chocolates, UHT milk, biscuits and infant food) presented 100% non-compliant labels. Regarding the type of non-conformity, the nutritional table was the item analyzed which presented the largest number of irregularities. Thus, some items of the legislation are discussed in order to provide a proper adequacy of labels to consumer’s needs.