At the core of the debate is the issue of how best to educate consumers and whether designation of some foods and beverages as 'positive' and others as 'negative' is the best education strategy.
Food safety consumer education has been sorely lacking, and this high profile undertaking is needed to ensure the billions of dollars food and beverage manufacturers have spent on food safety interventions and good manufacturing practices do not become undone by consumer ignorance.
In the same manner that technology has affected the gathering and dissemination of information and led to the fragmentation of the news media, it will have a similar impact on the marketing of consumer goods.
Anyone who has attended trade shows such as the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food Expo knows the food and beverage industry has been slowly edging its way beyond sustenance and into the gray area between health and wellness and the pharmaceutical sector.