We start from a simple premise: People have the right to know what they’re putting in, on, and around their bodies.

There are three simple things everyone should know about their food but don’t:
Where did it come from? How was it made? What’s in it?

In the United States, manufacturers of processed foods are still not required to label where a product came from, whether it contains genetically modified organisms, or was produced using synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides.

Additionally, government agencies, such as the FDA, continue to face criticism for falling short of their responsibility to protect the public from contamination and other food safety scandals.

GoodGuide and consumers around the world have launched the “What’s In It?” Campaign to demand transparency from our food producers.

We call on food manufacturers to disclose the following information about all products:

1. Where it came from:

• Disclosure of where ingredients were grown and processed. For meats, this should include where the animal was born, raised, and slaughtered.

• Tracking and labeling throughout the supply chain, with a process for tracing contaminant issues.

2. How it was made:

• The use of synthetic pesticides.

• The use of hormones.

• The application of antibiotics.

• The presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

• Animal cloning in meat and milk production.

• Food Irradiation

• USDA Organic production standards.

• Explanation of a company’s food tracing and contaminant control program from farm to table.

3. What’s in it:

• Complete ingredient lists, with details of common allergens, applied to restaurant items as well as store-bought foods.

• Nutritional information normalized to a standard serving size.

• Explanation of levels of nutrients that may be harmful (such as saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, and sugar).

• Contaminants such as pesticides, methyl mercury, or PCBs that remain in the product, even in trace amounts.

We call on the government to mandate disclosure of critical information for our health and safety.

• The U.S. Government should mandate that food manufacturers disclose all information through a public database to be managed by the Food and Drug Administration (or a new Food Safety Agency). An open data feed of this information should be made available to the public.

• The government should develop an open data feed for real-time recalls that can be accessed by retailers throughout the country. Retailers should use UPC or RFID technologies, coupled with their sales data (matched to shopper’s loyalty cards) to alert anyone who has purchased a recalled product; and to block customers from purchasing recalled products if a store has not yet pulled them from their shelves.

• The government should “open source” Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), a plan intended to identify and prevent potential hazards associated with food, so that the public can evaluate their quality, akin to the way “the crowd” evaluates the quality of Wikipedia entries.

• The government should implement an electronic tracing system for all food sold in the U.S. so that manufacturers, retailers, and the public are able to track food products back to their source, particularly whenever there is a contamination problem.