UK: CA Policy Paper

The Consumers’ Association in the UK has published a policy paper on the issue of food labelling and health. It provides an overview of the main areas of food labelling and makes recommendations to the UK government, the EU and the food industry. It identifies a number of what it sees as problems within UK food labelling practices, including: failing to give all the information that consumers may want to check; manufacturers presenting information in different ways, making comparisons difficult; labelling making it difficult to read the information; terminology which is too technical or obscure, or simply inaccurate. It suggests that the Nutrition Labelling Directive planned for 1998 should address the following:

• “nutrition labelling should be mandatory for all pre-packed foods that have been processed in any way and should include information on at least: energy and the amounts of protein, carbohydrate, sugars, fat, saturates, fibre and sodium;”
• “nutrition information declared on labels should be comparable between products: presentation should be standardised in a way that is clear, easy to read and easy to understand; information should be printed on a plain background, black lettering on white; there should be a minimum size of lettering; the typeface should be standardised and the use of italics carefully restricted; the use of terminology should be reviewed, based on consumer research, to ensure that it is user-friendly;”
• “benchmark Daily Values should be given for all nutrients so that consumers can judge the contribution a nutrient makes to the overall daily intake;”
• “all figures for macro-nutrients should be rounded to the nearest gram; energy should be given to the nearest five calories or 10 kilojoules. Sodium is present in only small amounts, so it should be presented in mg and rounded to the nearest 50mg. The label should also reiterate that these are typical values for the food and not exact;”
• “urgent consideration should be given to standardising the methods of analysis used to determine levels of fibre on nutrition labels, which are also linked to targets for health.”

The policy document delves into other related areas of this subject, including nutrition claims, health claims, ingredients labelling, the labelling of alcoholic drinks, genetic modification, food safety and food storage.

Momentum on this issue in the UK has been building against a background of growing Parliamentary interest as illustrated by Vernon Coaker MP’s recent private Members Bill based on a similar document produced by the Co-operative Society.

The UK’s Institute of Grocery Distribution has, meanwhile, published new recommended guidelines for its industry members concerning food labelling. The guidelines call for clear and consistent details of the fat and calorie contents per serving, and for the recommended daily intake of fat and calories for an average man and woman to be stated on the packaging.