Don’t Eat That by Rafi Sackville

Israel Today Don’t Eat This

By Rafi Sackville

My addiction to chocolate and salty foods can be linked to my childhood in Melbourne, Australia. I’m certain it was the pocket money my father gave me that led me to the local Milk Bar, where I’d point at the “lollies” (candy) on display behind the glass counter and ask for “20 cents worth, please.” The proprietor would fill a little bag with gummy worms, gushers, bananas and chocolates and watch me begin eating the contents before I walked out the door.

More than half a century later, my tooth remains sweet, my will to resist weak, and the variety of candy endless.

Today, I have trouble walking the candy aisles in supermarkets. When I see loose arrangements of candy, I’ll take a few with the intention, most oftentimes not realistic, that I’m tasting in order to buy.

Which is why I was surprised at the psychological effect the latest food label campaign has had on my predilection to indulge. Since the labeling campaign began its latest iteration at the start of 2021, I’ve seen my consumption of snack food drop.

The Ministry of Health developed four labels, three red and one green. The former denote a high content of saturated fats, sodium or sugar. The green label is for healthy choices. The campaign was a result of a national increase in diet-related illnesses and an overall increase in obesity among Israelis.

The government website explains how the new label law aims to make the information on prepackaged food clear and accessible. This should, in turn, make consumers more “purchase knowledgeable” and help them make healthier choices. The campaign will eventually lead to restaurants being required to similarly flag and label their menu items.

In a paper on the general efficacy of food labels, the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research found that approximately 50% of Israelis said that labeling affects their purchasing choices, while 20% claimed they bought products high in sugar, fat, and salt content regardless of the warning labels. Their study reported that advertising campaigns were an imperative to “increasing individuals’ perceived confidence in understanding the information on nutrition labels.”

The criteria for which labels go on which products was calculated to take the Israeli Mediterranean diet into consideration.

The long-term view about labeling was researched many years earlier when statistics started to show the obesity rate in the country was rapidly increasing. Figures showed that this trend translated into a life expectancy reduction of almost three years.

An effort was made to convince food manufacturers to label positive food products with a green label because such food items do not require labeling – that is, any food in its natural state or with added herbs or spices, or foods that are minimally processed by using additives.

The green labels are just as noticeable. More than once I’ve overheard customers mention the healthy contents, and more than once I’ve overheard someone say that “green labeled healthy food is tasteless.”

Israel has come a long way from the corner makolet where you could buy a limited range of elite chocolate and candy and eat nothing more savory than Bamba (Israel’s winning strategy against peanut allergies).

The path to labeling was resisted for many years. In 2016, the Israeli food industry was pleased to discover that the labeling recommendations weren’t as strict as they first feared. Manufacturers were initially vocal in their opposition to the new regulations. At the time, the ministry’s campaign against savory snacks was summarily pulled from circulation.

In the five years since then, the public perception has changed. The battle over the red stickers appears to be over. The labels are everywhere.

Research has rightly suggested that unless the labels on products are visible, colorful, and clear, their effect will be minimal.

Herein lies the paradox: some studies have found the warning labels effective; others have not. Because 50% of customers either don’t read labels or don’t care, this makes label efficacy harder, particularly due to the ubiquity of snack foods.

My wife and I recently flew out to see our children in Far Rockaway, NY. Our daughter Elisheva thought it might be nice if we bought some Israeli candy for the grandkids. I took ten photos of all the candy I could find on the supermarket shelves and sent them to her. Later the same day we video-chatted.

“Oh,” she said quite matter-of-factly, “regarding those pictures; we can get all that candy here in New York.”

It’s like the story of the boy who cried wolf; the more he cried wolf, the less he was believed. The same logic applies to the amount of snacks on sale anywhere today; one becomes immune to their presence; we ignore the noise around them. We buy regardless of the strawberry-colored labels adorning the packaging. The more we see, the less likely we’re going to heed the warnings.

And yet! Personally, I’ve found the labeling quite sobering. When I see my favorite chocolate and candy bars labeled, or when I can’t avoid the stickers on even the most benign cracker box, I tend to bypass these products and head to the fruit and vegetable section instead.

Ehud Peleg, from Israel’s Consumer Council, says that what goes into a consumer’s mouth is “a basic right, and part of the consumer’s legally protected autonomy. The food guide will allow consumers to understand the significance of the markings on the label, so that they can make intelligent choices.”

It’s those last two words that get stuck in my craw with every label I eyeball. “Mate, make an intelligent choice,” I whisper to myself. “Be smart, Rafi. You’re not living in the Melbourne of your youth anymore.” Besides, 20 cents of mixed anything nowadays wouldn’t buy me enough of a sugar rush to last me from the supermarket to the car.