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Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
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Article Date: 31 Jan 2012 - 10:00 PST

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The key outcome of the FLABEL conference (Food Labeling to Advance Better Education for Life) in November 2011 was reported to be that even though nutrition labeling is commonly used throughout Europe, consumers pay insufficient attention and lack motivation to use them. FLABEL Scientific Advisor, Professor Klaus G. Grunert, will present the final findings of this three-and-a-half-year project in a webinar today.

Nutrition labels provide consumers with the option to choose healthier foods, however, scientific studies on using these labels in real-life shopping situations are limited. According to the FLABEL project, consumers do understand the information presented in nutrition labels and use it to opt for healthier choices. Most of the consumers were able to correctly rank foods according to its health rating, when given information on key nutrients, such as fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt, as well as energy for a variety of products.

The key finding of the FLABEL research shows that consumer's choices are affected by their lack of motivation and attention in terms of nutrition labeling. Professor Grunert says that these important hurdles need to be overcome, explaining, that: "consumers need to be motivated to engage with nutrition information - for instance, by having a health goal - in order to pay attention to nutrition labels".

Lack of attention also has a negative impact on nutrition labels' choices on healthy foods. For instance, researchers tracked consumer's eye movements in a mock grocery store experiment when people were shopping for food. According to the data, the consumers only scanned the nutrition labels for an average of between just 25 and 100 milliseconds, insufficient to process the information provided.

The attention consumers' pay to read the nutrition information provided on the labels can be improved by motivating the consumer, however, the most promising option for doing so, including using the labels to make healthy choices is to consistently provide information on key nutrients and energy on the front of the pack. According to Grundert:

"Complementing this information with a health logo can also increase attention to, and use of, the information, especially when the consumer is under time pressure. The use of color-coding can increase attention and use in certain situations, although the effects are not strong."

Participants in the FLABEL project reported they prefer and would like to use more complex labels, which offer the entire information of a product. The data also indicates that whether or not consumers' prefer certain products depend on previous exposure or familiarity with the label.

The findings of the project evidently demonstrated a very high presence of nutrition information on food labels in Europe.

In an investigation conducted in the EU 27 and Turkey, researchers evaluated more than 37,000 products in five product categories, including sweet biscuits, breakfast cereals, chilled pre-packed ready meals, carbonated soft drinks and yoghurts, and established that the majority (85%) of food products displayed nutrition information on the back of the pack, with almost half (48%) of the products showing nutrition information on the front packaging.

A table with a list of nutrition proved to be the most common method of labeling for the back of the pack (84%) whilst Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) labels and nutrition claims were the most frequent method on packaging fronts. Both types of labeling were found on a quarter of all products.

The webinar was held today, from 9:30-10:20 CET (8:30-9:20 GMT), this link provide the full study results, including their policy implications.

Written by Petra Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
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Petra Rattue. "Nutrition Labels Being Ignored By Consumers." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 31 Jan. 2012. Web.
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Nutrition Labels Being Ignored By Consumers