Mandatory labelling or labeling (see

spelling differences Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and Americ ...

) is the requirement of consumer products to state their ingredients or components. This is done to protect people with

allergies Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are various conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include Allergic rhinitis, hay fever, Food allergy, food al ...

, and so that people can practice moral purchasing. Mandatory labelling is mandated in most

developed nation A developed country, or advanced country, is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy, and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations. Most commonly, the criteria for eval ...

s and increasingly also in

developing nations A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreemen ...

, especially for food products, ''e.g.'' "Grade A"

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

s. With regard to

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

and

drugs A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestio ...

, mandatory labelling has been a major battleground between consumer advocates and

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

s since the late 19th century. Because of past

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...

s involving deceptive labelling, countries like the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

require most processed foods to have a

nutrition facts label The nutrition facts label (also known as the nutrition information panel, and other slight variations) is a label required on most convenience food, packaged food in many countries, showing what nutrients and other ingredients (to limit and get e ...

on the label, and the table's formatting and content must conform to strict guidelines. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

equivalent is the slightly different nutrition information table, which may also be supplemented with standardized icons indicating the presence of

allergen An allergen is an otherwise harmless substance that triggers an allergic reaction in sensitive individuals by stimulating an immune response. In technical terms, an allergen is an antigen that is capable of stimulating a type-I hypersensitivi ...

s. In

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, all

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

is labelled with the

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

of origin, including

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

and fax numbers, although this information is not available to buyers outside China, who see only a generic Made in China tag. In Brazil, food containing more than one percent of GM ingredients must be labelled as such. The development of

genetically modified food Genetically modified foods (GM foods), also known as genetically engineered foods (GE foods), or bioengineered foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using various methods of genetic engineering. G ...

has led to one of the most persistent and divisive debates about mandatory labelling, which is one of the central topics in

genetically modified food controversies Consumers, farmers, biotechnology, biotechnology companies, governmental regulators, non-governmental organizations, and scientists have been involved in controversies around foods and other goods derived from genetically modified crops instea ...

. Advocates of such labelling claim that the consumer should make the choice whether to expose themselves to any possible health risk from consuming such foods. Detractors point to studies that conclude

is safe, and point out that for many commodity products, the identity of the grower and the custody chain are not known.

Voluntary Voluntary may refer to: * Voluntary (music) * Voluntary or volunteer, person participating via volunteering/volunteerism * Voluntary muscle contraction See also * Voluntary action * Voluntariness, in law and philosophy * Voluntaryism Volunt ...

labelling and co-marketing of products deemed desirable is another matter usually carried out by entirely different means, ''e.g.'' Slow Food. There has been increased regulatory interest in substantiating these claims, and in some jurisdictions, food labels require regulatory approval before use. An interesting halfway is those labels that are considered mandatory by one buying population and effectively preclude purchase if they are not there, e.g.

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, ), from the Ashke ...

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

, and the aforementioned GMO-free label now seen on many organic products. Areas in which mandatory labelling is being discussed include: *

—see

* spraying of meat with bacteriophages * in the United States, fresh meat was added to the list of products which require mandatory country of origin labels (mCOOL) in 2002, however this was the subject of a challenge in the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

by Canada, which Canada won in 2011

References

{{labeling Brand management Business law Ecolabelling Packaging Product management Food packaging Consumer protection