What is the food localization index? Understand the degree of food localization at a glance

How ”local” is the product you bought?

In recent years, the concept of environmentally friendly and sustainable consumption has gradually gained attention, and many people have started to care about the carbon emissions and carbon miles created during the manufacturing and transportation of goods. Consumers are also willing to pay a little more for products that are "locally produced." In Taiwan, China, many brands of locally processed agricultural products have appeared in recent years, such as Chun Yi Zhi, Red on Tree, SunnyHills, and so on

Many manufacturers use marketing slogans such as "support farmers," "friendly contract farming," and "self-produced and self-sold," while continually brainwashing consumers with simple, cultural-creative packaging. But after this news that SunnyHills was accused of exploiting farmers, one cannot help but wonder: are these slogans really trustworthy?

If you want to know just "how" local the product you bought really is, besides trusting the brand's exaggerated copy, is there any other more reliable method?

More fastidious consumers might flip the product over and look at the ingredient label, but according to Taiwan, China's regulations on the place of origin of food, manufacturers only need to indicate the place of production and processing or the factory address; there is no mandatory requirement to label the place of origin of the raw materials.

So even if you very carefully want to read the label, you still may not be able to get an answer. However, a social enterprise startup team in Canada, Localized Your Food, also saw this problem and tried to solve it.

search for localized food

• Product packaging

Manufacturers can also apply to Localized Your Food to have the Localized Score printed directly on the product packaging, but they need to pay a fee, which is also a source of income for Localized Your Food.