Hunt the nutrition information
on foods, but as many as one in four can not find what they are
looking for on current labels, reveals a new survey from the UK's
Food Standards Agency.
Consumers are urging food makers to include nutrition information on foods, but as many as one in four can not find what they are looking for on current labels, reveals a new survey from the UK's Food Standards Agency.
An ongoing debate between food manufacturers and consumer organisations, this new research set out to test food labels, and essentially, the effectiveness and appeal of various new nutrition label designs. The research followed on from earlier agency consumer research that identified three label designs that were most appealing to consumers.
The three new labels were tested alongside the current nutrition label and a label based on those used in the USA. Consumers carried out various tests to determine the effectiveness of each label and were asked which one they preferred.
Researchers found that while all the labels had their pros and cons, a nutrition label that marked key nutrients as 'high', 'medium' or 'low' came out on top in all-round performance and preference.
The current nutrition label performed well when consumers were asked to look at a single product and extract information on the calories, fat and saturated fat, and when they were asked to compare products in term of nutrient content per serving. But consumers found it difficult to glean important information about the salt content from the current nutrition label, which includes information on the amount of sodium but not salt.
Use of salt by food processors is heavily criticised by consumer groups, and this latest finding will clearly feed their criticism.
Consumers preferred nutrition labels that related nutrition to the diet, whether by figures (providing guideline daily amounts for key nutrients) or by words (marking key nutrients as 'high', 'medium' or 'low'), showed the survey results.
In January 2003, the European Commission began a review of the European legislation controlling the nutrition labelling of foods. The FSA said this week that the findings of its nutrition survey have been passed on to the European Commission to 'inform its work on the nutrition labelling review'.
