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Hi Listmates,

Someone recently made mention of peanut butter and that prompted me
to write this caveat. I feel that accurate labeling is a particularly
important subject that people need to be made aware of because so
many of us travel (eat abroad) and so many of us buy products
imported from other countries.

I live in Israel and there are many, many items imported from
absolutely everywhere. We actually do have a Gluten Labeling Law in
place (not that all local companies abide by it...) but there are
particular difficulties to consider when buying products originating
in other countries. In Israel what happens is that the importer slaps
a label on the jar of, say, peanut butter (which is my mental
connection to this subject), being a mere translation of the
ingredients that the foreign manufacturer put on his original label.
If the country of origin doesn't require specific or accurate
labeling, the translation won't reflect that even though the
importing country may require it of its own packaged foods. For
example, the ingredients in English on the label of ALL GOOD peanut
butter will sometimes list malt and sometimes won't. The US
manufacturer (or maybe it's Canadian - I don't buy ALL GOOD anymore)
changes its ingredients as it deems financially expedient and
hopefully lists the truthful ingredients on the label for that lot.
However, the Israeli importer doesn't really notice the change but
has made up a label in Hebrew that reflects the ingredients on a
previous lot of ALL GOOD peanut butter, not noticing that the
original manufacturer has made some changes. So the local consumer
who doesn't know much English won't even bother looking at the
English list (often obscured by the Hebrew label anyway), only
relating to the Hebrew list of ingredients. In addition, there is
often no phone number for inquiries - local or otherwise. And even if
there were, the importer isn't qualified to determine the gluten
content of what he has imported.
I've seen this happen on cereals imported from France as well and
sweets imported from Switzerland and Greece. (I don't know French,
German or Greek enough to check.)

If anyone has comments on how they deal with this or whatever, please
respond. Obviously I could just not buy the product, but in Israel so
much of our packaged food is imported. Just something else to be
aware of...

Thanks, Sharon Marcus
Ma'ale Adumim

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