LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Food label reading by consumers who buy foodstuff from the market

Madam, the regulation of food labelling started with the Pure Food Ordinance of 1960. The primary purpose of this regulation was to eradicate the doctoring of food. All the rules of this ordinance were found in sections 13 and 14 of the Pure Food Rules of 1965. In this regulation, it was stated that all pre-packaged foods should indicate the name of the food, the address of the manufacturer, all the ingredients present, as well as the weight of the food. The labels were not allowed to make claims about vitamins and minerals present in the food unless they were found in an approved list. It was also stated that all the labels should be in English as well as in Urdu.