Label Reading isn't JUST Label Reading
Recently I was reading something that said we should be, quote, ‘reading ingredient labels on products because doing so allows us to avoid harmful chemicals and allergens and empowers us to make better choices for ethical and health reasons’
I literally scoffed out loud.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, it totally makes sense BUT, lets be honest, it’s so much harder than it sounds!
I AM a label reader, but when I say that what I really mean is that I’m a label photographer (cause the writing is so small I need to use the zoom function on my phone camera to see it!) I’m an ingredient googler (is that even a word?) and a question asking letter writer because when I ‘read’ a label and there is an ingredient I don’t recognise I question what the hell it is and wonder just how safe it is for me and the environment.
It’s a damn slow, frustrating and very unenjoyable procedure because half the time it feels like the information is written in another language – it’s not, but if you don’t have some major science degree you practically have to google the meaning of nearly every word they use! (Or at least I do anyway)
Companies rely on us taking their products at face value and trusting the big words (the one’s I don’t need my glasses for!) and pictures that they put on the front of their products BUT there’s some really lax regulations around ingredients and labelling and transparency and more and more product marketing is ‘greenwashed’ to make a product sound better than it really is. And unfortunately, while I don’t want to be derogatory or offend anyone, the truth it that we, as consumers, are ridiculously gullible. Marketing geniuses have even proven that in the ‘environmental sector’ a company can make a customer think their product is more environmentally friendly simply by changing the colour of the bottle from white to green!
There’s also a huge misconception from the general public that if a company knows that an ingredient is bad for us or the environment, they’ll do the right thing and stop using it. Sadly, this is just not true. If it makes the company money and they can legally (and I’m cynical enough to say illegally) get away with it; then 9 times out of 10 they’ll continue to do it.
Today after reading one label, I lost about four hours of my day, googling, reading and eventually emailing a company. Their product claims to be “kind to sensitive & easily irritated skin", yet after reading up on the ingredients, THREE of them are known skin irritants!
The frustrating thing about reaching out to a company is that generally you won’t get a reply until you have followed up multiple times (and sometimes you never get a reply at all!) Often, when a reply does come, it will be vague or a standard non-committal response, which usually doesn’t answer the question I’ve asked. The funny thing about that, is that most of these companies also claim to be ‘openly transparent’
Of course, there is the occasional company that does reply (shockingly one or two even reply after the first email!) and gives me the information I’m asking for. Sometimes it’s a huge win and I’ll happily start using their products and sometimes it means I’ll decide NOT to use that product, but if that’s the case, I will still high five the hell out of that company for replying and being honest because an ingredient or practise that is unacceptable for me might be perfectly acceptable to someone else.
Because what ‘label reading’ really comes down too… whether it’s a food item, a skin care product or a cleaning agent… is personal accountability. Reading labels and researching the ingredients we don’t recognise gives us the opportunity to know WHAT the ingredients are, how they affect our bodies, our health and the environment. Having this knowledge LETS US MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION about whether or not we CHOOSE to use or consume those products.
When everything is taken into consideration – from ingredients to manufacturing practices to transportation to cost – I don’t think there are any ‘perfect products’ but there are definitely BETTER CHOICES out there and they’re the one’s I choose to use. How about you?