Americans Want Honest Analysis of Grocery Store Food Labels

LA JOLLA, CA, May 16, 2011

Do you trust the people who make your food? America's major conglomerates want to produce more product and spend less money, and that's bad news for what's on your fork. Even worse, food corporations are not held accountable for the content on their nutrition labels. They add some vitamins and call it "enriched" or they report it's a "good source of fiber" even when your body cannot dissolve the amount added. Ultimately, most of what we buy in supermarkets is all the same—artificial.

That's where Honest Label Foods comes in. Today's food choices could affect your family's health for years to come, but we know many people do not have time to study nutrition labels. With the Honest Label Food Scanner, our new mobile app for iPhone and Android, you can scan a supermarket bar code with one swipe of your phone and discover what's in the food. Instead of reading long lists of vitamins and fats, set the app to flag specific ingredients. Your phone will light up red or green depending on whether a product meets your requirements, helping you make better overall food choices. Daily values are presented in an easy-to-read visual bar graph, and complex chemicals are explained with information from the FDA's database to ensure accuracy.

When asked what she would flag, Stephanie Blakey of Ontario, Canada, pointed immediately to aspartame, an artificial sweetener she became addicted to while drinking Diet Coke. "I had to have three two-liters in my fridge in order to get through a day," she admits. "I couldn't get off it during pregnancy, even when it came to the health of my child." Blakey is quick to point out that the American FDA doesn't require clear, front-of-the-package labeling for aspartame the way Canada's government does. "In Canada, if you're pregnant and drinking Diet Coke, you get dirty looks," she reports. She likens aspartame to tobacco, suggesting that the U.S. government's attitude toward the chemical is outdated. "I could consume 22 cans of Diet Coke every day, according to the FDA, before it would have an adverse affect," she says. Blakey believes Honest Label will help consumers avoid a danger the American government hasn't raised awareness of yet.

We all want to live healthier, but it's an uphill battle when the food we eat does the opposite of what the manufacturers claim. This mobile app takes the guesswork out of healthy eating and shows you what's really best for your body. We believe that nutrition labels should be transparent—and food choices should be easy.

We started Honest Label on behalf of grocery shoppers everywhere. We take consumers' best interests to heart, and we provide information to help them make healthy decisions. For more information about this topic or to schedule an interview about Honest Label, please call us at 826 246-6378, check out our website at http://www.honestlabelfoods.com, or email us at rebecca@honestlabelfoods.com.