We want nutrition labelling

without using magnifying glasses, declares Barbara Gallani

Consumers are very interested in nutrition and are trying to follow a balanced diet. They would like nutrition information on labels and find the current way of displaying information frustrating and difficult to read and understand. These are the findings of a BEUC survey of 3000 consumers’ perceptions of food labelling in five European countries (Germany, Denmark, Spain, Poland and Hungary) last year.
Under current legislation, nutrition labelling does not have to be provided on all products. Consumers across Europe are often faced with nutrition information that is either lacking or not detailed enough.
The labels may not be clear – terminology and presentation can be confusing, for example ‘sodium’ and ‘salt’ can be used interchangeably even if they are not. And labels are very hard to read. We should not have to dig out our glasses, or sometimes more likely a magnifying glass, to read the small print and to cope with the very poor colour contrast (pale pink on white, green on transparent packaging containing green peas!). 
Moreover, figures are difficult to put into context. Often it is not easy to understand whether, for example, 2g of saturated fats in a small snack eaten in between meals is a lot or a little (in fact it is a lot, considering that a woman should not eat more that 20g of saturated fats each day and that saturated fats are present in many of the foods we eat).

Websites no alternative

The information found on labels, as long as it is legible, is one of the main sources of nutrition information, used by between 40 and 60 per cent of consumers, depending on the country.
Information provided by food companies either on the internet or through free-phone numbers appears to be used by less than 2-3 per cent of consumers and therefore cannot be considered as a viable alternative. We believe it is necessary to improve the labels and make them more meaningful for consumers.

Consumer demands

Consumer organisations across Europe have been campaigning for a number of years to improve the nutritional information on food labels. We ask for a minimum size of lettering and clear rules on contrast to be set.
We also ask for mandatory nutrition labelling of the ‘big eight’ (energy, protein, carbohydrate, sugars, fat, saturated fat, fibre and salt) as well as appropriate labelling of trans-fatty acids for all processed foods. We also support the harmonised use of front-of-pack simplified labelling to help consumers better understand and quickly judge the nutritional quality of the food they want to buy.

Barbara Gallani is Food Policy Adviser at BEUC, the European Consumers’ Organisation
B.Gallani@beuc.org