I’m always amazed when I travel back to the United Kingdom at how much easier it is to identify more sustainable and healthy food choices from food labels, and just how many more of those options are available. I think these labels speak for themselves, so this post is essentially a photo essay of the food I found on recent trips to the UK.
Stopping for a bite along the motoway. Yup, that's fresh fruit at the service station.
Perhaps a sandwich made with pole & line caught tuna? Note the nutrition info right on the front of the package. (M&S, Marks and Spencer)
How about a pork pie? (Waitrose)
Or maybe you want to make the sandwich yourself? (Waitrose)
Later on, perhaps some fresh fish for dinner? (ASDA)
Or maybe something frozen? (Waitrose)
Followed by a nice mug of hot chocolate before bed? (Co-Op)
Wondering where your morning eggs are from? (Booths)
And if concerns over packaging are keeping you up... (M&S)
What do you think? Would you like to see food labeling like this in Canada? Have you seen food labeling in other countries that you think is more informative that what we have here? Share your thoughts!
UPDATE on Canadian Food Blog Awards: I made it into the final round! Thanks to everyone who voted. Now I have to ask you all to vote again. The list of finalists and a link to the voting poll can be found here. Voting ends January 20th.
YES! Please more labeling like this in Canada and everywhere around the world!
I just found your blog thanks to the article you did on Lufa Farms in the latest edition of Edible Toronto. Great work!
I totally agree with you – after living in the UK for 4 years, I just expected that moving back here it would be easy to buy local, sustainable or healthy food choices but that’s just not the case. I find the worst of it is with fish. There just doesn’t seem to be much info here in Canada on methods of fishing or details on origin. We have a long way to go here in Canada towards better labelling. I do see some supermarkets copying British ideas (Loblaw’s seems to have ripped off Waitrose with their new black labeled food line for example) so let’s hope they steal a few more ideas!
Holy cow. It’s staggering.
And very, very nice to see.
t!