Projects per year
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Nutrition labels are potentially a major instrument for enabling consumers to make healthier food
choices, but current insights into how nutrition labels are used by consumers in real-world shopping situations are limited,
making the science-based formulation of new labelling policies and the evaluation of existing ones difficult. The objective of the
European Union-funded project Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life (FLABEL) is to determine how nutrition
labelling can affect dietary choices, consumer habits and food-related health issues.
Subjects/Methods: A wide range of qualitative and quantitative consumer research methods is being used, including physical
auditing, label sorting tasks, eye tracking and electrodermal response, structured interviews and analysis of retail scanner data.
Results: First results from the project show that, on the basis of consumer responses, nutrition labels available in Europe can be
categorised as non-directive, semidirective or directive. Penetration of nutrition labelling on food and drink packages in five
product categories seems widespread, with the nutrition table on the back of packs being the most prominent format (found on
84% of over 37 000 products audited in 28 countries). The higher penetration observed in Northern Europe is paralleled
by more public health campaigns in this region alerting consumers to nutrition labelling systems and elements covered therein
(for example, calories, salt and fat).
Conclusions: The findings to date indicate that nutrition labelling is widespread in Europe but formats and level of detail may
differ between countries and products. Upcoming studies within FLABEL will decipher whether and how the various elements of
nutrition labels affect attention, liking, understanding, use and dietary choices, and what the implications are for stakeholders
such as policy makers.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | S14-S19 |
Journal | European Journal of Clinical Nutrition |
Volume | 64 |
Issue number | S3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2010 |
Keywords
- attention
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Dive into the research topics of 'Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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FLABEL: Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life
1/08/08 → 31/01/12
Project: EU research project