Hot Topics in Food Labeling

or Your Food Label and You.

I came across this powerpoint while looking for reference on designing nutritional labels. It had me at “bare bones.”

What caught my eye was the Hot Topics in food labeling section, especially the icon for irradiated foods, which I had never seen before.

It’s called the RADURA, a splicing of the words radiation, obviously, and the Latin -dura which means “last” or endure, a nod to the preservative process that is irradiation. It’s been verb-ized in some countries, so if someone offers RADURIZED food, you know what they’re talking about.

I came of age in the 1980’s, so my fondness for radiation goes as far as The Day After TV miniseries and the discovery of fleshy headed mutants in the forbidden zone. So it’s nice to know that my psychological baggage was weighed in the decision to avoid this:

And go with something more like this:

Is it a coincidence that the RADURA looks like the logo for the department in charge of patting bunnies on the head? Can’t say for sure. But there seems to be a full blown PR campaign going on in that little circle. Way more PR activity than what’s going on in the familiar USDA Organic symbol:

Pretty straight forward, no PR going on there. Or is there?

When you look at them together, there’s as much going on in the Organic mark to skirt around people’s fear of hippies as there is in the RADURA to skirt around people’s fear of the bomb. Yes? No?

Anyway, I got really excited about the next slide about cloned organisms:

See that? No current requirement for listing cloned ingredients. But it’s sure to come, I can already see the B-roll of kids eating lunch, story at ten.

So why not get a jump on it? Here is my submission for the inevitable need for total clone disclosure:

Of course, everyone knows that when you produce two identical organisms from the same matrix, one of them is pure evil.

There. Okay, maybe there needs to be a graduated labeling system like the USDA’s Grade A, Grade B. So:

This is the one you want. 100% good.

Mmm. That’s good clone.

posted by Bill on Jul 29, 08:00 AM. Filed under  

Comment

  1. That post took me from cynical resignation to hysterical laughter. Thanks for the roller coaster ride and I love your clone icons!

    — Todd · Jul 29, 08:31 AM · #

  2. omg. the clone icons are awesome and hilarious! your evaluation of the other symbols was fantastic. great post.

    — jessica · Jul 29, 09:23 AM · #

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