Categories count: Trans fat labeling as a technique of corporate governance

摘要

This article explains how regulators use categorization, quantification, and labeling to change how corporations manufacture commercial products. The Food and Drug Administration wanted to create an incentive for manufacturers to replace trans fats by requiring food labels to disclose trans fat content The Food and Drug Administration initially proposed categorizing trans fats as saturated fats and quantifying both substances with one number on labels, but industry actors largely favored quantifying trans fats separately from saturated fats. Industry actors argued that such an approach would show consumers which products had been reformulated to contain 0 g of trans fats, thus allowing manufacturers to market reformulated products as 'healthier' and rewarding investments in alternative technologies. The Food and Drug Administration ultimately decided to categorize and quantify the two fats separately, specifically designing the disclosure of quantitative information in order to encourage technological change. Thus, I argue that quantifying information on commercial product labels was not only intended to govern individual consumption but was also intended to govern production in anticipation of individuals governing their consumption. Regulators used their capacity to quantify as a means to govern industrial production.