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Time for a united front on labelling, says Which?
Evidence shows that the strongest front-of-pack label is one that combines use of the words ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’, traffic light colours and Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) in addition to levels of nutrient in a product, according to Which?.
As the Food Standards Agency (FSA) publishes the results of its study of front-of-pack nutrition labelling, Which? chief policy adviser, Sue Davies, said: “If the food industry really is serious about helping consumers make healthy choices, then it must accept the study’s findings, start pulling in the same direction and adopt the labelling scheme that works best for consumers.
“People need to be able to compare like with like when choosing between different products, so it’s important that retailers and manufacturers adopt the same scheme.”
The ‘Nutrition Signposting Evaluation’ concluded that:
- A single front-of-pack (FOP) scheme would be most helpful for consumers, as the presence of multiple schemes can cause confusion.
- Evidence shows that the strongest FOP label is one that combines use of the words ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’, traffic light colours and Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) in addition to levels of nutrient in a product.
- There’s generally a high understanding of FOP labels, even among those who don’t use them, which suggests that raising awareness of a single scheme could encourage increased use of FOP labels when buying food.
According to Which? research carried out in July 2006, 73% of people say it would be confusing if different firms used different labelling schemes.
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