Food labelling: Study shows benefits of portion information

As the European Parliament prepares for its second reading of a new food labelling law to improve nutritional information spelled out on food and drink packages, new research throws more weight behind the industry's voluntary labelling scheme, which is currently being rolled out across Europe.

Background

In 2008, the European Commission proposed new legislation on providing food information to consumers. The proposal combines existing rules on food labelling and nutritional information into one regulation.

The aim is to make food labels clearer and more relevant to consumers. The regulation includes specific requirements for displaying information on energy, total fat, saturated fats, carbohydrates (with particular reference to sugars) and salt on the front of packaging.
Industry and consumer groups are broadly supportive of this agenda but opinions vary on, for example, whether nutritional information should be presented per portion or per 100ml or 100g and whether it should be supported by a visual scheme, like colour-coding or guideline daily amounts (GDAs).

A new study by the European Food Information Council (Eufic) and researchers at the UK's University of Surrey looked at how consumers interpret and use portion size information on food and drink labels.

Carried out online among a total of 13,117 consumers in France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK, the study claims to be "the most comprehensive study on consumers and portion information in Europe".
According to Eufic, the survey results demonstrate that providing portion information in addition to per 100g/100ml information on food and drink packaging is useful for consumers and helps them "use nutrition information correctly".

Although only one third of respondents looked for portion information on packages, nearly half said it was relevant to them. Depending on the country, the relevance of nutrition information per portion ranged from 70% in Spain to 36% in Germany. The respondents who agreed that portion information is relevant for them explained that the data help them to determine the number of portions in the package. This allows them to better decide what amount to buy and monitor how much nutritional intake they get based on the quantity they eat.

However, depending on the food types, the respondents found that the portion sizes were not always accurate and complained that they were too small, rather than too big. They were also uncertain about what factors determine portion sizes, generally believing that it was food producers who decide.

According to the study, price and 'best before' information are the most useful data, with almost 90% of consumers looking for this information.

New EU rules on presenting food information

The study results serve to support a voluntary industry scheme of guideline daily amounts (GDAs), which has already been adopted by several large manufacturers. The GDA system estimates the average daily energy and nutritional requirements for human consumption and provides the percentages of each that are contained per portion of a product.

However, critics argue that GDA labels can sometimes be misleading, particularly for portion sizes. If food manufacturers choose a small portion size, they are able to calculate nutritional values that make even products that are high in sugar or fat 'look good', the critics note.
After the European Parliament adopted its position on the Commission's 2008 proposal for a regulation on food labelling last June, EU ministers reached political agreement on the dossier in December.

Both the Parliament and EU ministers back mandatory labelling for energy value and nutrients per 100g or per 100ml, but say that the values may also be indicated as a percentage of reference intakes (GDAs) and per portion.
However, these additional forms of expression or presentation could only be used "provided that they do not mislead consumers and are supported by evidence of understanding of such forms of expression or presentation by the average consumer".

Source: EurActiv with Reuters