‘Read Your Labels’ Campaign Launched

Consumer action group Citizens for Health has introduced “Read Your Labels,” a campaign to create awareness about what the organization considers “questionable” ingredients and chemicals found in many grocery store products. As part of its continuing mission to promote better health and nutrition, the nonprofit is urging shoppers to read the ingredient labels on the foods and beverages they buy.

The campaign additionally offers information online about the “Top 10 Ingredients to Avoid,” a list of sweeteners, preservatives and chemical additives deemed “controversial” by Citizens for Health. A concurrent “Read Your Labels” social photography initiative invites consumers to take photographs of food packages and ingredients labels when they come across these ingredients in grocery products.

“I think consumers will be surprised to see just how many everyday supermarket products there are that contain things like monosodium glutamate, aspartame, and high-fructose corn syrup,” said Jim Turner, chair of Washington, D.C.-based Citizens for Health. “No one needs these ingredients in their diets, and this campaign will help families avoid them.”

The three ingredients singled out by Turner are all “generally recognized as safe” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.