Some of you will have seen this topic rumble on already on social media : A good few weeks ago I posted about food labelling and food marketing, and how hard it is for small producers like us to interpret the legislation and get it precisely right. The topic struck a nerve with a lot of people, and the video went a little viral (60K plus views)
The short version of what I said: we're up against bigger competitors with big marketing teams and big legal teams people whose whole job is to find the clever, creative ways to stay just inside the rules. The small guys don't have that luxury, we're doing our best to interpret the same legislation with a fraction of the resources, and it isn't always straightforward. I gave an example of how over the years we’ve been told we had to take gluten free( and then another time) off our yogurt packaging.
Janine Kennedy from the Irish Farmers Journal picked up on the conversation and wrote a genuinely balanced piece about it for Irish Country Living, in the Farmers Journal, its called "Irish Food Labels - Challenge Packaging Health Claims". It's well worth a read if you've ever stood in a shop wondering whether something is actually healthy or just dressed up to look like it.
The bit that stuck with me most: “small producers are genuinely struggling to navigate what's allowed on labels, particularly around health claims. The FSAI has learning modules and information on their website, but there's no dedicated guidance or support service for small producers trying to get this right"
In the video clip above I pull all of this together — the labelling piece, why it matters, and what you can actually do about it.
It doesn't take much. Following, commenting, sharing on social media, one purchase, one recommendation to a friend it genuinely makes a difference to businesses like ours.
The moral of the story is: support local where you can, read your labels, buy Irish, try to avoid the ultra-processed imports, and we'll all be better off for it as a country, and as a business community.
