by Raghavan 'Ragha' Sampathkumar
Every year, the second Friday of October is celebrated as “World Egg Day”. On this day, it is important, as industry stakeholders of the food industry, to ensure spreading truthful information about the nutritional superiority of eggs and concerted action from all stakeholders for busting myths about food, in general.
Let us first take eggs as nutritional food. Eggs are one of the nature’s powerful foods packed with essential nutrients such as proteins, vitamins and minerals that are better in quality and bioavailability than most of the comparable foods. For example, eggs contain choline, an essential nutrient that helps brain development and cognitive abilities in children. Similarly, the protein in egg white is possibly the best quality protein with a biological value (BV) of a perfect 100, more than all others.
However, since last few years, several reports about linking eggs to various kinds of illness including cardio-vascular diseases, bad cholesterol etc have been spread on several social media channels. An ordinary consumer, who might or might not have clear understanding of science and nutrition, will be made to believe whatever posted on social media as truthful information. However, after certain point and getting overloaded with information, the consumer gives up and does not think much further rationally. Ultimately, the purpose of such misinformation i.e. to confuse the consumers is achieved.
However, this has huge negative implications on food industry and also the consumers. Truth does not travel as fast as lies. But due to fears spread based on unknown and unfounded claims, the food industry suffers loss of reputation and it is nearly impossible to counter the negative publicity with the limited resources that the industry has. All these negatively impact the way consumers decide about what food to consume and influences their preferences.
Added to this are celebrities showcasing their latest ‘food fads’ on social media, which influences a huge number of people particularly, youth across the world. This trend is unfortunately growing as people blindly follow the celebrities without considering their situation in terms of socio-economic status, country’s development and also future generations.
Read the full article in the Milling and Grain, HERE.
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| Raghavan Sampathkumar |
Every year, the second Friday of October is celebrated as “World Egg Day”. On this day, it is important, as industry stakeholders of the food industry, to ensure spreading truthful information about the nutritional superiority of eggs and concerted action from all stakeholders for busting myths about food, in general.
Let us first take eggs as nutritional food. Eggs are one of the nature’s powerful foods packed with essential nutrients such as proteins, vitamins and minerals that are better in quality and bioavailability than most of the comparable foods. For example, eggs contain choline, an essential nutrient that helps brain development and cognitive abilities in children. Similarly, the protein in egg white is possibly the best quality protein with a biological value (BV) of a perfect 100, more than all others.
However, since last few years, several reports about linking eggs to various kinds of illness including cardio-vascular diseases, bad cholesterol etc have been spread on several social media channels. An ordinary consumer, who might or might not have clear understanding of science and nutrition, will be made to believe whatever posted on social media as truthful information. However, after certain point and getting overloaded with information, the consumer gives up and does not think much further rationally. Ultimately, the purpose of such misinformation i.e. to confuse the consumers is achieved.
However, this has huge negative implications on food industry and also the consumers. Truth does not travel as fast as lies. But due to fears spread based on unknown and unfounded claims, the food industry suffers loss of reputation and it is nearly impossible to counter the negative publicity with the limited resources that the industry has. All these negatively impact the way consumers decide about what food to consume and influences their preferences.
Added to this are celebrities showcasing their latest ‘food fads’ on social media, which influences a huge number of people particularly, youth across the world. This trend is unfortunately growing as people blindly follow the celebrities without considering their situation in terms of socio-economic status, country’s development and also future generations.
Read the full article in the Milling and Grain, HERE.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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