Sunday May 27, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

How much do you trust the information on nutrition and ingredients on food labels?

Have Your Say Jan. 31, 2011 - 03:00AM JST ( 31 )

Order by Time Order by Popularity

31 Comments

0

PapigiulioJan. 31, 2011 - 08:33AM JST

Depends where the products are from. If they are from China.......HELL NO!
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MariaJan. 31, 2011 - 08:45AM JST

You have to trust them unless you find out otherwise, or you'd go mad! If a food item has a list of ingredients that's longer than the rest of the bumpf, I put it back.
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pamelotJan. 31, 2011 - 08:49AM JST

I buy and use fresh; what I see is what I get. I use my own spices, extra virgin olive oil. Don't do deep fried, margarine, sugar substitutes, excess salt-

Except for the occasional extravagance, then the nutritional value label is pretty much moot.

It's not that I don't trust nutritional labels- I just take them with a grain of salt...
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cleoJan. 31, 2011 - 08:59AM JST

If the ingredients list reads more like a chemistry set than a food list, I put whatever it is back on the shelf. Most of the time, like pamelot, I buy and use fresh, but let's face it, when the label says 'organic' you either believe it or choose the cheaper item next to it that looks exactly the same.
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GWJan. 31, 2011 - 10:32AM JST

Labels in Jpn............less likely to believe. Like others long lists of additives usually left on the shlef.

pamelot, just because its fresh doesnt mean what you see is waht yr getting. Example J-nashi I found out they can be sprayed 20-30times before picked for sale, now I only eat a bit if offered but we now never buy them!
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sengoku38Jan. 31, 2011 - 10:53AM JST

You have to have a PhD in chemistry to read food labels.
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FoxieJan. 31, 2011 - 11:27AM JST

A lot of information is missing on Japanese labels compared to other countries. So, this saves a lot of time when shopping, they might as well put Kitty stickers on it. In the US, there is too much info on the stickers and the FDA system is confusing to me. I generally trust European labels.
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MonkeyzJan. 31, 2011 - 11:37AM JST

I haven't trusted J-labels at all since buying some imported goods. Out of curiosity I compared the labels. For example, the European import would declare itself to be "dairy free," and then the Japanese label would just make up some milk products that weren't even listed on the Euro label. Just making crap up. It was quite weird. I would definitely trust American, Aussie, or European labels far more than a Japanese one.
0

DisillusionedJan. 31, 2011 - 11:45AM JST

Anyone who has followed the news in Japan over the last few years would be aware of the multitude of food mislabeling scandals and putting dangerous additives into foods, melamin in milk products and using cheap Chinese rice, which was tainted with a pesticide to make Sho-Chu were a couple of recent cases. Of course, people expect Chinese food labels to be false, but the Japanese food labels are no better. So, in answering the question: How much do you trust food labels (in Japan)? Somewhere between zero and bugger all!
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pamelotJan. 31, 2011 - 11:50AM JST

J-nashi I found out they can be sprayed 20-30times before picked for sale

Obviously, produce is sprayed to keep it from getting too gnarly-looking to be put on the shelves... All, even "organic" produce must be washed well before using /cooking.

Fresh, with no "labels" needed, is still a better option, IMO.
0

GWJan. 31, 2011 - 12:36PM JST

as long as you know that fresh isnt necessarily safe, I shop in a similar way but chemical use in Jpn is high & I serious urge everyone to avoid nashi(pears), when my farmer friend who I buy my rice from told me he wont touch them you know its massively excessive, but damned they look nice on the shelf tho.
0

GWJan. 31, 2011 - 12:38PM JST

One thing I dont like is how Jpn imports baby eel for example, toss them in ponds & voila sold as Japanese eels.

Ditto for some shellfish, I have watched 20ft containers full of 20kg sacks of baby clams from North Korea that get tossed onto local beaches & then voila Japanese clams, and this is perfectly legal
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JkandaJan. 31, 2011 - 12:56PM JST

GW, I think they should label them as Japanese eels and clams adopted from some country! Personally I do not care where these things come from. Makes me laugh when I see people reading labels carefully.. I am convinced that no country is being honest about this. Personally hate the Nestle products now. All sorts of oils are substituted. Yuk! As for veges, try to take the most natural loking ones. Those overly healthy looking, glossy ones are dubious. Glad I have a natural aversion for fake stuff. But sometimes hard to avoid.
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porterJan. 31, 2011 - 01:55PM JST

Chemical perservitive use is high on imported produce to keep it fresh on the ship.
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kawachiJan. 31, 2011 - 02:13PM JST

@Disillusioned: How can they use rice to make shochu? Shochu is made from sweet potatoes or wheat. You must be talking about sake.
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nandakandamandaJan. 31, 2011 - 02:16PM JST

Any label that says 'vegetable oils' whthout clearly specifying which oils. Invariably this means a high content of poly saturated palm oil.
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GWJan. 31, 2011 - 04:59PM JST

kawachi

while shochu is indeed made from imo & mugi there is also TONS of it made from rice, not just sake, & down in Okinawa the awamori is made from long grain rice(ie from SE Asia).

I have also had shochu made from soba, ninjin & other stuff, aint just imo & mugi, check the labels & see for yrself
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nandakandamandaJan. 31, 2011 - 06:10PM JST

Before slagging labels off, I think they are a good idea but they should be monitored and policed more strictly.

The reason I don't particularly trust them in Japan is that I have seen too many exposures of untrue labelling here. You have to imagine that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There needs to be more threat of exposure, either through efficient inspectors or by more whistle blowing. Then my trust might increase a little.
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kawachiJan. 31, 2011 - 06:44PM JST

@GW: Yes, there are many types of shochu, I've even had it made from spinach and coffee (and they weren't good.) But I don't consider Awamori to be shochu, though it is distilled in the same manner. By the way, Awamori may be made with rice now, but it was originally made from millet, hence the name "AWAmori" as "millet" is "awa" (粟) in Japanese.
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GWFeb. 01, 2011 - 12:20AM JST

kawachi

There is TONS of shochu made with rice, the awamori thing was a bit of a tangent but its basically shochu tho they also sometimes stuff the bottles with habu for a little etc something haha
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kujiranikusukiFeb. 01, 2011 - 07:47AM JST

In Japan. you have to be kidding!!! I dont belive what the labels say here at all. I follow my labels closely wherever I live. learning the kanji for Japanese labels was one of the first things I did. I am sorry, but they must use a different system for figuring out protein. School lunch is the same. they give the amounts of calories and protein. there is NO WAY!!! a cooked chicken breast about about the size of your palm, a little smaller than an American mans palm, is about 25 grams of protein. some of the most dense protein you can find. I see things that list 20 grams of protein and the only meat is about the size of my little finger. unless they are pumping all their food with low quality soy like the USA their numbers are WRONG!
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marcelsFeb. 01, 2011 - 10:01AM JST

I don,t know I can,t read Japanese yet!!! Probably a good thing I guess!!
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TahoochiFeb. 01, 2011 - 11:56AM JST

Wow... a lot of very health conscious people posting answers here... my answer is: it doesn't matter because I rarely read the labels at all.
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TahoochiFeb. 01, 2011 - 03:05PM JST

kujiranikusuki:

What I posted is far from that "1st comment" garbage. If this question were set up as a poll-type question, I think it would probably look something like this:

"How much do you trust the information on nutrition and ingredients on food labels?"

A. All the time

B. Never

C. Most of the time

D. Rarely

E. I don't read the labels

As petty as you may think the people who answer "E" are, this demographic is more important than you think. What if most people out there actually have the same opinion as me? I'm sure JT would like to know. If, for example, one poster after another came on here and stated that they do NOT read the labels, then I'm sure that would be interesting and beneficial for JT and other readers to know that for future topics or questions.

Now I know, most posters who have answered this question so far seem to be health conscious, and are answering this question based on the assumption that people DO read the labels. But what if that wasn't the case? What if people who don't read the labels are the majority, and they are simply choosing not to have their say on this thread because everyone else who is answering so far DO read the labels?

Whatever the case, I really didn't have the intention of coming across as a "troller", but if I did, then my apologies. All I'm saying is that I make up part of the population that does not read labels which I know is out there, I'm not proud of it, or ashamed of it, just "having my say" as this section is called.
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the_sheriffFeb. 01, 2011 - 03:21PM JST

It's sadly becoming harder and harder to trust food in Japan. Yukijirushi, Meat Hope, Fujiya, Shiroi Koibito, and Akafuku are just some of the companies/products that have hit the news in the past several years for mislabeling (偽装事件) and other nasty things.

I would love to be able to rely on products' nutritional data to better plan my diet but that just isn't going to happen, especially since so many products don't even have such data on the packaging.
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dammitFeb. 01, 2011 - 09:04PM JST

I don't trust food labels anywhere, because I know for a fact that some will be wrong by mistake, and some will be wrong because someone wants to make more money.

It's not just Japan, this is a worldwide problem, anyone heard of melamine milk powder? Water-injected meat? Dioxins in food? BSE? Falsified expiration dates? Fake green peas? Pet food contamination? Falsified country of origin? Not to mention toxic gyoza.

Some of those examples happened in Japan too, but none of them was exclusive to Japan. Not even the gyoza, which were made in China and therefore not a problem caused by Japan. Some haven't even been heard of in Japan as of yet, and the latest dioxin scandal is in Germany.

I remember when Britain had it's own scandal of British beef being labeled falsely as Scottish. This might seem a minor discrepancy to those not in the know, but BSE never got as far as Scotland, so labeling British beef (which may have been contaminated with BSE) as Scottish mislead people into thinking it was safe - and also made it more expensive, earning those responsible a nice extra profit.

Scams like date-changing and fake country of origin happen all over the world. Mistakes and accidents, like eggs from chickens accidentally fed with a feed containing dioxin, also happen everywhere. So do fingernails in your tinned or frozen meal. (They're not on the label either.)

Pesticide use is impossible to guage visually, and you can't trust the labeling either, with all countries having their share of misrepresentation - some of it gets found out, most doesn't.

For me while I'm in Japan, the most suspicious words on food packaging are Australia, or Ozzy beef. I'm sure up to half of it is really American, but of course it's impossible to tell.
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eigokunFeb. 01, 2011 - 09:26PM JST

Japan is a safety obsessed culture. The public demands the highest food safety standards from both the private sector and the Government. Offences do exist but still very rare. Same goes for product safety or public safety. And that’s exactly why any kind of incident becomes the top story of every newspaper. After the US mad cow disease event, even Washington thought Japan's food safety standards were too rigorous. So I'm not too worried about labels or food safety. I think the system is working quite well.
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stevecpfcFeb. 01, 2011 - 09:40PM JST

eigokun; You must be living in a different Japan than me then.
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eigokunFeb. 01, 2011 - 10:31PM JST

stevecpfc; Okay, thanks for the comment.
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GWFeb. 02, 2011 - 01:04AM JST

eigokun

I think yr buying the perception, the reality is different(imo japanese prefer perceptions over reality), a quick glance things look good but dig a bit & you will find almost nothing is tested & if it is data isnt available to the public, toxins are covered up routinely.

Just look at the bird flu in Miyazaki, how many outbreaks has it been, sure you can never cover 100% but clearly nothing is done until an outbreak occurs, its like the cops who do little to no prevention, they wait for accidents to happen, then go check them out
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UROFeb. 02, 2011 - 01:43AM JST

Trust, or not trust: that is the question