摘要：Federal intervention in food labeling is often proposed with the aim of achieving asocial goal such as improving human health and safety, mitigating environmentalhazards, averting international trade disputes, or supporting domestic agriculturaland food manufacturing industries. Economic theory suggests, however, thatmandatory food-labeling requirements are best suited to alleviating problems ofasymmetric information and are rarely effective in redressing environmental orother spillovers associated with food production and consumption. Theory alsosuggests that the appropriate role for government in labeling depends on the typeof information involved and the level and distribution of the costs and benefits ofproviding that information. This report traces the economic theory behind foodlabeling and presents three case studies in which the government has intervened inlabeling and two examples in which government intervention has been proposed.
关键词：labeling; information policy; Nutrition Labeling and Education Act;dolphin-safe tuna; national organic standards; country-of-origin labels; biotech;food labeling
