Page 16 - Social_Sustainable consumerism
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- Ingredient list
Some products used by the food industry have highly negative impact on the environment. This is for
instance the case of palm oil, that is known to contribute dramatically to deforestation. Also, paying
attention to the ingredient list will help you to avoid food products containing such kind of ingredients.
Here, you should take care about the different names that can be given to palm oil, as it often appear on
labels as “vegetable oil” or many alternative names, as listed by the Orangutan Alliance (Ethical Consumer,
s.f.)
Finally, you shouldn’t forget to have a look at the packaging of the food product, see if it can be recycled
and do not use unecessary plastic.
2.5 Some examples of regional quality labelled products
Case 1. The Comitee of Ecological Agricultures of the Valencia Community (Spain)
The Comitee of Ecological Agricultures of the Valencian Community (Spain) is the Control Authority in
charge of certifying agri-food organic products of plant or animal origin, transformed or not, obtained in
the Valencian Community.
Their organic certification guarantees that the products have been produced or elaborated following the
rules of organic agriculture, and that they have been controlled throughout their production, preparation,
packaging and marketing process.All green operators are inspected at least once a year.
Control covers any stage, from the primary production of an organic product to its storage, transformation,
transport, sale and supply to the final consumer and, where appropriate, labeling, advertising, import,
export and subcontracting activities.