How to Commit Legal Fraud with Product Labels

Fraud in product labels is usually committed by omitting crucial information. What isn't written on the label might be more harmful than what is written. The high art of labeling is not being caught at it while giving the impression of full disclosure. To make it more interesting, the final content of the label also has to be legal.

Years back, I was commissioned by a Swiss company to write the label texts for a product called Chlorella pyrenoidosa. My brief was to get everything into four sentences in each German, French, and English. The information in all three languages had to be identical. I still think it was one of the hardest writings I had ever done. It was asked to write 12 sentences and it took me weeks to get them together. 

The product was registered under the novel foods act in Switzerland. I therefore had severe limitations as to what I was allowed to write. By law, expressions like vitamin or trace element were completely out of bounds, others like health severely limited. In consequence, I had four sentences to convey to the buyer that he bought a product with lots of vitamins and trace elements that were good for their health without saying it in so many words. 

As the three languages had to have identical meaning, I couldn't get away with a translation that didn't exactly fit. Then those four sentences had to say something to the consumer, but most of what I wanted to say was out of bounds for legal reasons. And finally they had to fit on the label. That's where the graphic label designers came in, and I seriously considered murdering them more than once.

As I had to do quite a lot of preliminary study, too, as I knew nothing about the product to start with. During this research, I came to several conclusions about labels, labeling and information shown on labels. For my own amusement, I also set up four categories of fraudulent labeling which I want to share with you. 

Fraudulent labeling by law 

This category is the one you will be thinking of when reading fraudulent labeling, the illegal labels that are punishable by law. It is, in my opinion, a capital crime and should be severely punished. As is, these people usually buy themselves free on the proceeds of the fraud they previously committed. 

Famous cases that I am able to remember without researching them were the German Kebab case, the Italian Mozzarella case, and Argentinean beef case. Kebab meat was sold to restaurant that was three years old and was relabeled as fresh. Mozzarella contained parts of mice and other unsavory ingredients. Argentinean beef was Polish beef that was shipped from Poland to Argentina. There it was relabeled as Argentinean. It was then shipped to Germany as an Argentinean product. 

I haven’t been comfortable eating either Kebab or Mozzarella ever since. The Argentinean beef case had an added twist to it. The Polish producers had received money from the EU to export this meat to keep it out of the European market. None of the persons concerned in either three cases ever went to prison. And to make it clear, these labels were just fraudulent and illegal; they were not artful. 

Fraudulent labeling by ethics 

Into this section I moved those labels that I thought fraudulent but were in keeping with the law. E.g. a product known as Tyrolean Ham was sold mainly in Germany. The pigs are bred, born and brought up in Germany. They are then transported alive by lorry to the Tyrolean part of Italy where they are butchered and ham is cured from their meat. The finished ham is then transported back to Germany by lorry. 

Into the same category I put chickens labelled as free range. They are brought up in cages as long as possible and then spend an exact amount of time stipulated by law on the outside. The poor creatures must hear the clock ticking every moment they spend out there. 

Fraudulent labeling by morals 

Into this section I moved those labels that are built on allusions to a legal labeling process. To stick with the free range chickens, to use that on a label, the producer must follow legal rules set up. In this case the legal rules are minimal, but still, they are there. A producer might now find a catch phrase that gives the impression of his product being free range. Let’s say he claims that his product is produced from freely ranging chickens. 

Further examples can be found in labels, imprints or medals granted by some organization or other to a producer. There are genuine ones that are handed out to producers following certain rules. A producer might just invent his own organization and imprint. Such labels might or might not be against the law depending on the judges. 

Fraudulent labeling by default 

This section contains the labels of products that may not show important information as the law forbids them to do so. Law sometimes constrict the label content on products so far that important information gets actively lost on the way to the customer. But it is all in the better interest of consumers, if you want to believe politicians.

To get back to the starting point, Chlorella pyrenoidosa have high iron and beta-carotene content. They also make people vomit who suffer from Escherichia Coli. None of this may be printed or published by the producer because it might give the impression that the algae are healthy or a product from a health range. 

Fraudulent labeling by omission 

Yes, I know, I told you I made four categories. The point is, all labels fall into this last section. That’s where art meets fraud. The art is to omit everything legally possible and pile in as much as laws allow. It’s like drawing a straight line while dodging legal hurdles at the same time.

For the consumer this means that labels are the perfect carrier of false information. If you start really reading the labels on food, you will spend more time figuring out what they didn't tell you than reading what they tell you. The exercise is good for you as it trains your brain daily at top level.

Perfect examples for artful labeling are all products in the light or diet section. If these products make any claim to a reduction of anything, be it sugar, salt, or fat, they must be able to prove that. On the other hand, they must not tell you what they added as long as it is naturally contained in the product anyhow. Therefore, sugar free products contain more salt and more fat than normal, as otherwise they would taste like the packaging they are sold in. The same principle is used for fat free and salt free products where sugar replaces one or the other. Obviously, the addition of toxic waste like artificial sweeteners must be declared.

I am sure; there are hundreds of examples out there just waiting to be put into my categories. If you haven’t encountered any, start reading the labels really carefully and figure out what they don’t tell you. Feel free to start a list in the comment section.

Further reading:
Chateau Talbot
Cheating Hermann Goering
How to Predict The Apocalypse