been a rise in “free-from” labeling on packaged foods over the past decade. This in part may be due to increases in food allergy and sensitivities, but it’s often a marketing tactic. As consumers adopt various styles of diets, they may be looking to avoid certain ingredients. For example, a person with celiac disease needs to avoid gluten (although many consumers choose to avoid gluten for no medical reason).
Sometimes the free-from ingredient labeling is useful (such as when someone with an allergy needs to identify certain ingredients in foods). Other times, these labels are misleading. It’s confusing when a label includes a free-from claim for an ingredient that wouldn’t normally be in the food product anyway — for instance, when orange juice is labeled “dairy-free” or “GMO-free.” Orange juice never contained either dairy or any genetically modified ingredients. The simple notion that a product is “free-from” also makes you think that it’s somehow better, or that the ingredient it is free from is “bad” or was removed.
Some food labels are free from so many different things that it may make you wonder, what is it actually? With the trend for gluten-free and dairy-free diets, these claims continue to cover packages. Labels may also include GMO-free, vegan, plant-based, egg-free, or nut-free. Some are just ridiculous, such as gluten-free water or GMO-free gin. Most of these labels are added for marketing purposes and don’t impact the health and safety of the food. But what do all of these free-from labels really mean?
Gluten-free: This voluntary labeling regulated by the FDA means that the food bearing the claim doesn’t contain gluten or any gluten-containing grain.
Dairy-free: While the FDA doesn’t allow false claims on packages, there’s no regulatory definition for the term dairy-free. Ideally, a food with this label wouldn’t contain any dairy products.
GMO-free: This is sometimes misleading when there’s no GMO counterpart for the ingredient in question. For instance, it’s one thing to compare GMO soybean to non-GM soy. But because there’s no GM wheat, it makes no sense to label a wheat product “non-GMO.”
Egg-free: Products containing eggs must be labeled “contains eggs,” but there’s no regulation for the egg-free claim.
Nut-free: This is also an unregulated package claim. While nuts may not be an ingredient in the product, this claim doesn’t mean the product doesn’t contain the allergen, or was not processed in a factory that processes nuts.
Vegan: While this term is clearly defined to mean a product doesn’t contain any ingredients of animal origin (including honey and gelatin), it isn’t regulated by the FDA.
A food allergy occurs when the body’s immune system reacts to certain foods by making antibodies (IgE), and this causes typical allergic symptoms (itching, rashes, hives, swollen lips or tongue, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, wheezing, or trouble breathing).
A food intolerance can cause similar symptoms with digestion but doesn’t cause the immune response. Lactose intolerance (the inability to digest lactose, the sugar in milk), celiac disease (an intolerance to gluten), and Crohn’s disease (an inflammatory bowel disorder that often causes diarrhea) are all examples of food intolerance causes.
Unless you’ve been properly diagnosed by an allergist, there’s no health reason to avoid common allergens. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, a small fraction of adults and children (almost 10 percent) have a true food allergy.
So-called plant-based products
Unfortunately, science-based guidelines sometimes get skewed in translation. The current U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) could be described as “plant-based,” yet they’re sometimes blamed for poor eating habits. These guidelines go through a thorough review process every five years and are science-based. The DGA recommends limiting saturated fat, sugars, and sodium. Beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds are part of the protein foods group. They include dairy and protein foods but emphasize vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats.
However, sometimes, small bits of science-based information are used to market foods that may not really be worthy. “Plant-based” is another unregulated front of package label claim. You may see this term used offering the product a “health halo” or suggesting superiority over meat-based foods. For instance, we can say that potato chips and gummy bears are “plant-based,” but this doesn’t mean we should include them as part of our regular dietary plan. But that won’t stop a food company from marketing those types of products to make them appear like a better choice. Read labels closely and think about what the food really is.
Carbon footprint labels
Another up-and-coming trend is carbon footprint labeling and marketing.
Some emerging groups are promoting that you should lower your carbon footprint. But can carbon footprints really be calculated accurately? Supposed food carbon “calculators” and “quizzes” aren’t verified or standardized. They’re just biased efforts that assign an environmental footprint to foods, based on random assumptions and unproven methods.
At this point in time, there isn’t any science-based formula that can accurately estimate the carbon footprint of each item in the food supply. In addition, we really don’t know whether measuring the carbon footprint of different foods is going to matter, environmentally speaking.
Beef is estimated to emit the largest amount of GHG when compared to other animal proteins like pork, dairy, chicken, and farmed fish. It’s estimated that about half of the emissions from beef are from methane. According to Our World in Data, chocolate and coffee also produce GHG emissions, right behind beef. Still, because beef is often equated with these larger GHG emissions, the beef industry is targeted as a potential way to reduce emissions. It may be a short-sighted solution.