Knowledge is power

“You are what you eat” may have long been in the public lexicon, but it is only in recent years that consumers have taken the saying’s sentiment to heart. The modern customer is hungry for information about the food that they purchase. And it is the food manufacturer’s responsibility, through the labeling of dietary information on packaging, to satisfactorily meet this increasing demand.

Gill Fine, Director of Consumer Choice and Dietary Health at the Food Standards Agency, believes that there are several factors motivating consumers to take a greater interest in food ingredients. “More and more people are taking responsibility for their own health and that makes them think about their eating habits and what they need to change,” she says. “People want help in making healthier eating choices ­ for instance some 22 million are now trying to cut down on the amount of salt they are eating. It is therefore important that there is enough information on food packs, in a format that people understand, so that they can make informed choices.”

And being able to make this choice is a matter of increasing urgency, according to Dr David Haslam, Clinical Director of the National Obesity Forum. “We are in the throes of an obesity epidemic, which will lead to an epidemic of diabetes, heart disease and premature death,” he explains. “Many people are turning into mini-nutritionists, rather than mere shoppers. Factors such as saturated fat content, glycaemic index, proportion of our five-a-day intake, etc., are common knowledge, rather than the exclusive preserve of doctors and dieticians. So improved labelling is an essential step to improve the diet and therefore the health of the population, and prevent disease.”

In response to the rising demand for nutritional information, the last two years has seen the UK food and drink manufacturing sector ramp up its consumer support. In 2004, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) – the body that represents the food and drink manufacturing industry in the UK – published its Food and Health Manifesto, in which seven commitments to food and health were set out, including improved nutritional labelling, reductions in salt, sugar and fat, action on portion sizes and vending, advertising to children and a campaign of consumer education and information.

Last September – almost exactly one year on – the industry was able to publish detailed results of the progress made. “FDF’s ‘Delivering On Our Commitments’ report, based on a survey of 20 leading food companies assessed the extent to which they have delivered on their Manifesto commitments,” says Christine Welberry, spokesperson for the FDF. “In terms of labelling the survey found that 97 percent of products, worth almost £33 billion at retail value, will have full nutrition information on pack by the end of 2006 and 58 percent of products, worth £15 billion at retail value, will have the guideline daily amounts (GDAs) on packs to provide a simple 'ready reckoner' by the end of 2006.”

GDA system

But while the leap in nutritional data provided on packaging has been applauded, some have questioned whether the information’s presentation still leaves consumers in the dark. A variety of schemes to present nutritional information on food labelling have been proposed in the past. These include simple traffic light (STL) schemes, which gives a food a red, amber or green label according to whether it is deemed a healthy, moderate or less healthy choice.

Elsewhere, a multiple traffic light (MTL) scheme presents the same system but for a number of different nutritional areas, providing a red, amber or green rating to fat, saturates, sugar and salt. This colour coding is also applied to the GDA system in the CGDA scheme, which is identical to the typical monochrome GDA approach – which provides the percentage of a particular nutrient that the product supplies – but with red, amber or green labels to emphasise whether this is high, medium or low.

With health concerns growing and other European nations keeping a keen eye on developments to help them address similar issues, the matter has gained considerable coverage in recent months. Nonetheless, the food manufacturers remain confident that their GDA system is the most effective.
“Earlier this year we launched GDA signposts on the front of our packs, along with other manufacturers including Kellogg’s, Danone and Nestle,” says Kraft spokesperson Julia Westcott. “We all felt that the best way to help consumers make a choice in a supermarket situation was to put clear daily guideline amount information on the front of our products. We felt that GDAs provide a really objective view on the nutrients that the product contains.”

“GDAs are a simple ‘ready reckoner’ to help consumers construct a healthy balanced diet,” says the FDF’s Welberry. “Consumers can see at a glance what their average dietary requirements are, and use this information to help plan meals and see how individual foods fit into a balanced diet. The industry has reached agreement on a common format for displaying GDAs on packs as a ready reckoner for consumers and almost two thirds of products will display this information by the end of the year.”

Core principles

However, research by the FSA indicates that GDA isn’t as popular with consumers as other forms of labeling, and in particular those that are colour coded. MTL and CGDA both performed significantly better in research with 2500 consumers than STL and monochrome GDA, with consumers finding them easier to understand. In individual product evaluations, monochrome GDA and products with no signpost labelling performed less well than CGDA and MTL, with levels of correct responses of less than 50 percent in each case. Ultimately, the research fond that only three percent of consumers described monochrome GDA as their preferred signpost. In contrast CGDA was the preferred signpost by 65 percent of those questioned, with MTL the second most popular choice.

In response to these findings, the FSA has recommended that manufacturers adopt four core principles when implementing a labelling system:
• Provide separate information on fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt
• Use red, amber or green colour coding to indicate whether levels of
these nutrients are high, medium or low
• Use nutritional criteria developed by the FSA to determine the colour
code
• Give information on the levels of nutrients per portion of product

“We are recommending that front of pack schemes adopt four core principles to which additional information could be added,” explains the FSA’s Fine. “This approach provides a consistent basis for schemes in the marketplace, but still allows individual companies to have the flexibility to design the format in the way that best suits their particular customer base, and add additional information such as calories or GDAs if they wish. GDAs have been developed by the manufacturers and retailers, and they have been around for some time and have recently been extended. But we know that percentage information can be confusing for some consumers. So what we would like to see is retailers and manufacturers looking at their schemes to see if it complies with our four core principles. If not for them to consider ways in which it could be amended to ensure it does ­ for example by adding in traffic light colours red amber and green.”

Sainsbury's, Asda and Waitrose are the first retailers to use the recommended colour-coded approach on products. "Waitrose and our customers feel that a consistent approach, as proposed by
the FSA, will be the best way to allow consumers to make informed decisions
about what they eat,” says Christian Cull, Waitrose Marketing Director. “Our customers wanted an easy-to-follow, transparent labelling system and
traffic light colours – as recommended by the FSA – was their preferred
approach. It also leaves plenty of room on the back of pack for all the
information on GDAs that our customers expect from us."

"Customers don't want thousands of different types of nutritional labels in
their favourite stores that's why we are backing the FSA's proposals to get
nutritional information across in a clear, consistent, simple and
informative way,” adds Sue Malcolm, Asda’s Nutrition Manager.
“We see this as a combination of colour coding coupled to GDA
declarations and will be working closely with the FSA and other bodies to
make this happen."

Multiple schemes

However, despite the recommendations from the FSA, many food manufacturers are continuing with the monochrome GDA approach. Kraft’s Westcott explains why the manufacturer will continue with the GDA system and not the colour coded approach feted by the FSA. “We feel that multiple traffic lights are potentially confusing. If a product scores a red light for some nutrients, and amber or green for others, that gives a mixed message to consumers and could cause more confusion than motivation to choose healthier alternatives. GDA s are a quick , easy and objective way for consumers to keep track of what they are eating make the right choices for them.”

“The FDF agrees with most of the FSA’s suggestions on the key elements for a successful front-of-pack scheme but objects to the use of red, amber and green colour coding to categorise products as 'high' 'medium' or 'low' in fat, sugar and salt,” adds Welberry. “This could seriously mislead consumers as 'traffic lights' fail to take account of portion sizes and frequency of consumption. FDF believes that the best solution is to provide nutrition information based on GDAs which act as a simple 'ready reckoner' to help consumers construct a healthy balanced diet, and we encourage all of our members to provide this.”

Unfortunately, this disagreement over which system is the most appropriate for consumers looks increasingly likely to cement multiple schemes in the marketplace when the FSA has been working to consolidate labelling systems. This is a cause for concern according to Fine. “There have been increasing numbers of front of pack schemes on the market over the last 12 months and there is a real danger that it will become increasingly confusing for consumers unless there is some consistency around how colours are used and the criteria that is used to define whether something is said to be high, medium or low. We know from our research that 96 percent of those people said they would like a single scheme that they could trust.”

Nevertheless, the FDF stresses there is a “large measurement of agreement” between the industry and the FSA on the four core principles to be adopted in any signpost labelling scheme. And although it concedes that there is a key difference of view between industry and the FSA on the use of traffic lights, Welberry insists that “the industry looks forward to working with the FSA in the interests of establishing what works best for the consumer”.

Optimism and trepidation

Overall there are reasons for optimism and trepidation for the UK food industry on the topic of food labeling. Certainly the sustained efforts by the industry suggest that enabling consumers to make the healthiest choice is at the top of the agenda. But there remains a concerning divide that could potentially scupper all the good work that has preceded it, keeping the consumer in a state of confusion. Fine appreciates the predicament.

“We are optimistic that we can get a consistent basis on the front-of-pack schemes,” she states. “Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Asda have already developed schemes which meet our criteria, and we are in active discussions with other retailers and manufacturers. We have a real opportunity to have a win-win here – to have the core principles working to provide consistency for shoppers, but also to allow the creativity of individual companies to execute the principles in the way that best suits their customers. If consistency isn’t established then the UK runs the risk of missing out on a great opportunity to help consumers make healthy eating choices easier, as well as the chance to demonstrate that UK companies are at the forefront in terms of looking at innovative ways to help consumers to eat more healthily. If we continue to have a wide range of schemes in the market place there is a real danger that shoppers will be confused. They may also begin to lose confidence in front of pack information if they think the different schemes are just marketing ploys developed by food companies to sell more food instead of useful tools to help them make healthier choices.”

Ultimately, however, labelling is only part of the solution. That there must be an easily understood, visual representation of food content is widely agreed. But to find the most acceptable version is easier said than done. But critically, as Dr Haslam highlights, any food labelling system is only useful when consumers have the education to assimilate the information given to them by the food label, so a parallel public education campaign is essential.

“Our weight is governed by our success in tackling the energy balance equation; if we take in more calories than we burn off in physical activity, we gain weight. Improved labelling goes one step towards ensuring that we eat fewer calories than we burn, by providing essential information about the food we put in our mouths,” he concludes. “However, the country in the world with the best food-labelling is probably America, who have the biggest obesity problem – which proves that although food labelling is important, it is not the only answer, but must be done in the context of wider environmental change.”