Hacker News Reader

Comment by flossly | Hacker News Reader

Tobacco, wine and fresh bread are usually few of the consumables that in many western countries do not have to disclose their ingredients.

Why do we allow this? Just behave like all others.

Now we want to push for smoke-free societies: but non of ways to achieve this even dares to talk about "just make tobacco giants list all the ingredients/additives".

View on HN

Tangential but similar nonsensical secrecy for consumables: alcohol not requiring a nutrition label always irks me.

One beer company tried to do it. But because beer has vitamins in it, they were prohibited from doing it as it might have made the beer seem healthy.

Guinness is good for you!

Can you provide a citation? Plenty of beers have nutrition information labels.

The assertion used to be true, but is out of date. The beer industry negotiated with the FDA and now they can include nutrition labels.

The wine industry is still working on it.

Can you provide a citation. Just coming along and saying it's true is not a citation.

Ingredeant lists != nutrition chart

That sounds like a made-up Internet fact or urban legend.

It used to be true. It changed about a decade ago.

I think they mean the “it would come across as healthy” thing

Don’t buy it then?

Seriously though! It makes no sense.

The rule for fresh bread varies from state to state because it's not considered interstate commerce, so it doesn't have to follow the federal labeling law. (There's a ton of hypocrisy about the use of the interstate commerce clause, but this part isn't completely stupid.)

It goes for all good produced and consumed in the same state, not just bread. Tobacco and alcohol actually are regulated federally even when produced in the same state (that interstate commerce hypocrisy I mentioned). They don't require ingredients lists but they do require licensing.

Where I live (Maryland), cottage industries have to include ingredients lists. Others require just allergens. Some have no regulations one way or the other.

All fresh food does not have to disclose ingredients

I'm picturing a banana with a label on it that says:

Ingredients: banana Servings: 1 Serving Size: 1 banana

An amusing thought but I mean the potato salad deli stuff. Anything prepared on site (in a store or restaurant) doesn't need to disclose ingredients. There's no special exception for bread.

> There's no special exception for bread.

Personally, I prefer my bread to not have plastic labels on it. Besides on the bread itself, where would you even put such a label? The sleve-bags for bread are used for more than just one specific bread, so can't put them there either...

Sounds dumb, but then also if something unexpectedly had a list of 20 ingredients you might reconsider buying it

Yes! They should provide a list of all chemicals used to grow it, both in spray and in soil and in wash.

So you get for a banana:

Ingredients: banana, <a list of chemicals you cannot pronounce longer than the fist two chapters of the Bible>

I don't think anyone is under the delusion that cigarettes are healthy for you. Everyone knows they cause multiple cancers. That's part of the appeal. It shows how 'tough' and 'cool' the user is. No matter what you do, there will always be a reactionary group of people doing the opposite of what they are told.

This is discussed many times. How to stop smoking in youngsters by XYZ.

But never: just force them to transparently list the junk they --currently secretly-- put in.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com