Have you seen the back of a cornflakes box lately? It's like a resume of a candidate trying to impress 10 different HR panels at once: ✅ Fair Trade, ✅ Organic, ✅ GMP, ✅ ISO 22000
✅ EUREPGAP, ✅ HACCP, ✅ Cruelty-Free, ✅ Gluten-Free, ✅ Vegan-Friendly, ✅ Possibly blessed by a unicorn, Fairtrade etc 🦄
Compare that to your medicine strip, and you’ll find fewer compliance marks. Which one do you think needs stricter safety measures? Cornflakes or cardiac pills?
These labels are supposed to build trust. But are they? Here’s the kicker:
• Labels cost money. The more you slap on, the higher the price.
• Consumers pay for it — even if they have no clue what those acronyms mean.
• Majority of Indians (rural and urban) still buy unlabeled fresh produce and grains, relying on “nazar aur samajh.”
And let’s be honest — even organic certifications are often a maze of self-declarations, third-party audits, and “pay to pass” schemes. There’s more confusion than clarity.
Food safety needs to be universal, not exclusive to packaged food with fancy badges. We need:
• One single "Trust Score" label like medicines (e.g., green/yellow/red style).
• Reduce cost-laden labels that only benefit marketing teams.
• Focus on true backend enforcement, not front-end logo clutter.
Because at this rate, it’s not what’s inside the pack, but what’s printed outside that’s getting all the attention — and that's just bad economics and worse ethics
