“NANOTECH & LABELING” – SUMMARY MOEBIUS Radio Program 29 JAN 2012 BY LUISA FILIPPONI

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Good evening and welcome to Moebius, Radio24 science program. As you know Moebius is part of the Nanochannels project which aims at informing and engaging lay public on nanotechnology. It does so though a number of activities among which some online surveys and focus groups where the public is asked opinions on nanotechnology.
In one of these surveys the Project asked consumers if they expected products made with nanotechnologies to be specifically labelled. Results are interesting, and we have discussed them with Federico Pedrocchi, producer and editor of Moebius science, Luisa Filipponi, scientific consultant of Nanochannels, and Fabio Iraldo, Associate Professor in Management at the University Bocconi in Milan. Professor Iraldo research interests include certifications and product labelling. What you will hear now is a summary of this discussion.
First thing we ask Luisa to share with us the results of the Nanochannels survey, conducted last year all around Europe. We learn from her that when people were asked if they thought “it was necessary to have a specific label that identifies a consumer product manufactured using nanotechnologies?” about 70% of respondents said yes. When asked what should the label say and be like, as a first reaction about 50% of respondents asked for a symbol on the packaging and another half asked for the nanomaterials used to be listed in the ingredients. When this issue was discussed in more details during the focus groups participants, on a second thought felt that a symbol might not be so useful for the consumer since few people actually know what nanotechnology is. There is the risk of putting on the package something that people don’t quite understand, and at the end of the day, it does not help them in making an informed choice.
Federico at this point highlights that this is, indeed, the crucial point: if we want to truly inform consumers through labelling we would need a fair amount of information in that label written in a way that an average consumer can understand it. Federico also points out that in the same survey, some replied that what matters to them is the brand selling the product: they would select products based on brands they trust. So he passes on the question to Professor Iraldo: what labelling strategy should we adopt for consumer products made with nanotechnologies?
Professor Iraldo replies that there are basically two different approaches to labelling. The first approach is the adoption of a voluntary or a mandatory labelling scheme. In both cases the label summarizes information for the consumer who then has to deal with the information contained in that label.
Luisa now asks professor Iraldo what his opinion is on the argument that labelling actually shifts the responsibility from the manufacturer to the consumer who might be left with information that he or she does not quite understand. Yet the manufacturer has done his communication job.
Prof Iraldo replies that there is an issue with how readable and understandable the information on a label is for the general consumer. He explains how often manufacturers tend to put a lot of technical information on the label, in order to avoid liability.
Professor Iraldo now explains that the second approach is to create a brand, a quality trademark that consumers can recognize. The trademark is a symbol (a logo) provided by an Authority which tests the different products and through the trademark guarantees the safety of that product. Federico, Luisa and Prof Iraldo believe that the establishment of such an independent Authority is the best solution. Prof Iraldo adds that the existence of such an authority would become an incentive for manufacturers to use nanomaterials in the safest way and only where a real added benefit is evident for the consumer. He also highlights how we really need to avoid what happened with the GMO products, where no such Authority has been established, resulting in random labelling, which in the end does not guarantee safety for the consumers.
And now it is your time to say what you think on the matter of nanotech product labeling.
Add your comment and have your say!