Study shows Europeans understand food labels

Are Europeans knowledgeable about nutrition information? A pan-European study by the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) says they are. The study on consumer knowledge of food labels has shown that the majority of European consumers recognise and understand the improved ...

Are Europeans knowledgeable about nutrition information? A pan-European study by the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) says they are. The study on consumer knowledge of food labels has shown that the majority of European consumers recognise and understand the improved forms of nutrition information on labels including the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) plan.

'While there are several nutrition labelling schemes across Europe, our findings show that people recognise them and generally know how to use them to make informed nutrition choices,' said Professor Klaus Grunert of the University of Aarhus in Denmark. 'Nutrition labelling should be seen as a key element in a rounded public health strategy.'

More than 17,000 people from Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and the UK, in particular, took part in the study. It should be noted that while many consumers recognise and understand food labels, on average, only 18% of the participants regularly check the nutrition information found on food packaging.

Germans, Hungarians, Poles and Swedes generally look for the Nutrition Table which provides facts on levels of nutrients, calories, cholesterol and fat, while consumers in France and the UK check the GDA labelling system which provides guidelines on recommended daily intake amounts.

The group recording the highest awareness of any labelling system was the Swedes at 95%. Consumers in Sweden use a keyhole logo to identify the healthier product in a food category, but 61% commented that they still seek other forms of information despite the presence of the keyhole logo.

The majority of European consumers believe they understand the labelling system. Around 50% of them can successfully interpret the GDA information on labels.

Goods that compel consumers to look for nutrition information are breakfast cereals, yogurts and ready-made meals. Factors that also influence what consumers purchase are health and convenience. Taste tops the list for the deciding factor across all categories in most countries, the EUFIC study showed.

The results also indicated that product selection takes around 30 seconds for most consumers, and this is considerably longer than what has been identified in past studies. Hungarians report the longest time, at 47 seconds per product, while Britons report the lowest at 25 seconds.

Many consumers also seek the caloric content of the foods they eat, but Swedes check for sugar and fat content over calories while Britons check fat content first. Every participating country recorded fat as one of the top three items listed in nutrition information that they look for. Food additives, vitamins and fibre also made the list.

The EUFIC researchers said more than 70% of the Germans, French and Britons can correctly identify the healthiest products, while around half of the Hungarians, Polish and Swedes can. They added that these figures do not seem to be affected by which labelling scheme is adopted on the packaging.

Around 70% of the study's German, Hungarian and British participants gave correct answers on questions about fat, sugar or salt content of foods, while French and Swedish subjects were correct around 60% of the time.

An interesting finding to these questions is that while salt and saturated fat levels were not significantly considered by consumers when deciding if they should eat healthier, fat and caloric levels were. In general, younger consumers are more adept at finding the right answers, and people with stronger nutrition information gave more correct answers to these questions, the researchers said. Nutrition knowledge is bolstered by higher socioeconomic status as well.

The Regulation 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods was applied in EU Member States from July 2007. This legislation offers consumers clear and accurate information on food labels, thus enabling them to be properly informed on the foods they select.