Many people have learned that seed oils (soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, cottonseed oil, etc.) are not good for you. For better health, olive oil and avocado oil are preferred.
So companies have started making products with only olive oil and avocado oil. Even though these products are much more expensive, people are buying them for the promise of no seed oils.
The problem? The companies are not honest. They attach labels to these products claiming 100% avocado oil, or 100% olive oil, but it just isn't true.
The University of California at Davis published a study about a month ago in which they tested a number of food products for authenticity and label accuracy.
You can also get a PDF version of this study at the above site.
Here is an executive summary: https://UCDavis.App.Box.com/s/6ogs4l0ogplunooktwryr5b1m6k2xr9u/file/2347698985551
In this summary, a checkmark in the far right column is good. The lack of a checkmark is bad, indicating false labeling.
Apart from the question of buying mass-market "potato" chips and other crap, there is another question - When you sell a brass ring labeled as golden one for the price of golden ring it is a plain fraud with jail time. Isn't that applied to food in exactly same way?
And one more question: if we talk about "potato" chips, isn't that the same as selling starch powder mixed with salt as cocaine? Interesting, if you get caught selling fake drugs that are not drugs at all, will you be sentenced for selling drugs despite the fact that starch with salt is not a drug in any way? :)
Checking potato chips should be started not from testing oil, but from checking chips appearence. If they are all the same size, perfectly round, have no any natural irregularites and are evenly coloured - it is not even potato chips in the first place. Perfectly cylindrical potatoes without buds that will fry evenly does not exist. :)
In the US, big corporations just lobby (bribe) the regulating agency to redefine the word
So, you can't be shure that you buy butter, milk, cheese and other stuff, not margarine, some emulsion, cheese-like product and so on?
Strange, I thought that all that strict US trademark and IP laws cover product naming too in similar way. Like you can't use the word "milk" on a bottle of something that is not a milk or made from milk.
For the most part, things are correctly labeled. They always dance around the edges with these definitions, such as country of origin on products. It is important to read the label of contents on the package that is always in small print and on the back. If they wanted to sell butter that's not 100% cream, they will add a little word below butter that says "substitute". A lot of deception if you're not careful. Probably why most people in this country believe they are numbing down public education so people will be lazy and not read everything.
We have that shit with tiniest possible labels too. Mostly, to mention chicken meat in sausages where it shouldn't be. Traditionaly, sausages here should be made only from beef and pork, it is not prohibited to add chicken to sausages. Annoys a lot to find proper ones among hundred of varieties.
Most food is under strict control about name on the label. It is even stricter than trademarks and other stuff. If it is labeled as "butter", then it should be made from 100% cream. No plants oil or any other substitutes allowed. Quality may differ among manufacturers, but in any case it will be real butter. Infringers will be punished with huge fines, at minimum, or with counterfeit criminal case.
I thought that in US it should be even more stricter, not because of government control, but due to possibility of that multimillion moral damage suits against manufacturers, like ones that forced stupid big "do not eat" on small silicagel bags in shoes and electronics.