Nature on the Brazilian table and on the European table through food labeling

Abstract

The food industry, through elaborate and sophisticated marketing techniques, plays within the grey zone between respect for the law and abuse. The consumer needs to have the tools to unmask some practices, often legal, but lacking transparency, or even completely misleading because they contribute more to fantasize the reality than inform it. The label is the identity card of the food. In this work we will address the theme of the usefulness, unsuspected for some, of the labels and other indications – mandatory or not – that appear on food packaging to recognize the true content of food: how nature is represented in images, in the choice of terminology, in the protection of health claims, in the indication of the presence of transgenics or additives. We’ll go through a comparison of the legislation on the label in Brazil and Europe, we will underline the differences in the process of determining the rules (constitutional and institutional differences), in the way these rules appear (Food guide, legislation...), with practical examples of how the foods that arrive at the table of Brazilians and Europeans are identified in the labels. Particular attention will be paid to recent developments on nutritional information in Brazil and Europe and the new logos chosen by the legislator.