Some foods have over 20 ingredients in them, and many products have ingredients or materials that exchanged hands multiple times before it’s manufactured.
Currently, Made in… Product of… Packaged in… All have defined parameters.
Do I think this can be made better or more transparent? Sure. But unlikely as granular as you’re suggesting.
In today’s political climate, it would simply make sense (and dollars) for retailers and manufacturers to be more open about where products come from.
Ultimately, consumers will spend money how and where they want, and these companies follow that money.
I understand the many inputs that are involved but if you take the accounting side of things it would take nothing to identify a % for each country involved. The difficulty you suggest sounds more like a marketing complaint. Company’s have all been only to quick lately to demonstrate how convenient it is to change their packaging.
if you take the accounting side of things it would take nothing to identify a % for each country involved
That would be true, only if things remained constant on the manufacturer’s side.
Just to give an example of something I just experienced.
I was looking for a single ingredient product: popcorn kernels.
The package had no country of origin, but the store had labelled it as Canadian (sticker next to the price). I know the brand is Canadian, but that doesn’t help if I’m looking for products that are produced in Canada.
To make a long story short, I contacted the customer support line to inquire about the origin of this specific, one-ingredient product and the answer they gave was basically:
“We do our best to source local whenever possible, but certain factors sometimes force us to seek products from outside the country.”
So, my “Canadian” popcorn kernels were processed in Canada, but the corn was American. Next month, they may be using domestic corn, then a month later it could come from South America.
The same company had labelled tropical frozen fruit as “Canadian”, when I know damn well we don’t grow pineapple and mangoes in Canada.
In that context, how they handle label changes could end up being a significant challenge that only gets worse as you increase the number of ingredients, since every single ingredient could come with those same logistical challenges.
To me, this would give manufacturers and retailer more of an excuse to inflate prices.
I think that in the interim, manufacturers should do their best to label the country of origin and/or whether a product is “made”, “produced”, “packaged”, “designed”, or “assembled” in Canada. And retailers should also be more specific about what their maple leave stickers actually mean.
Although I think the volatility of sourcing is probably not a factor in most business (I’m not just talking food), I agree as with everything there would be details to work out. A reasonable exception with regard to information on packaging could be accommodated with a posting on their website. This whole packaging issue has recently been exposed as BS given how quickly and efficiently company’s recently changed packaging and labeling in order to deceive their customers. From my perspective I’ve had enough of corporate crybabies. Thanks for your thoughts and example.
It would be impractical, I think.
Some foods have over 20 ingredients in them, and many products have ingredients or materials that exchanged hands multiple times before it’s manufactured.
Currently, Made in… Product of… Packaged in… All have defined parameters.
Do I think this can be made better or more transparent? Sure. But unlikely as granular as you’re suggesting.
In today’s political climate, it would simply make sense (and dollars) for retailers and manufacturers to be more open about where products come from.
Ultimately, consumers will spend money how and where they want, and these companies follow that money.
I understand the many inputs that are involved but if you take the accounting side of things it would take nothing to identify a % for each country involved. The difficulty you suggest sounds more like a marketing complaint. Company’s have all been only to quick lately to demonstrate how convenient it is to change their packaging.
That would be true, only if things remained constant on the manufacturer’s side.
Just to give an example of something I just experienced.
I was looking for a single ingredient product: popcorn kernels.
The package had no country of origin, but the store had labelled it as Canadian (sticker next to the price). I know the brand is Canadian, but that doesn’t help if I’m looking for products that are produced in Canada.
To make a long story short, I contacted the customer support line to inquire about the origin of this specific, one-ingredient product and the answer they gave was basically:
“We do our best to source local whenever possible, but certain factors sometimes force us to seek products from outside the country.”
So, my “Canadian” popcorn kernels were processed in Canada, but the corn was American. Next month, they may be using domestic corn, then a month later it could come from South America.
The same company had labelled tropical frozen fruit as “Canadian”, when I know damn well we don’t grow pineapple and mangoes in Canada.
In that context, how they handle label changes could end up being a significant challenge that only gets worse as you increase the number of ingredients, since every single ingredient could come with those same logistical challenges.
To me, this would give manufacturers and retailer more of an excuse to inflate prices.
I think that in the interim, manufacturers should do their best to label the country of origin and/or whether a product is “made”, “produced”, “packaged”, “designed”, or “assembled” in Canada. And retailers should also be more specific about what their maple leave stickers actually mean.
Although I think the volatility of sourcing is probably not a factor in most business (I’m not just talking food), I agree as with everything there would be details to work out. A reasonable exception with regard to information on packaging could be accommodated with a posting on their website. This whole packaging issue has recently been exposed as BS given how quickly and efficiently company’s recently changed packaging and labeling in order to deceive their customers. From my perspective I’ve had enough of corporate crybabies. Thanks for your thoughts and example.