Europeans understand food labels but don't use info
A study conducted in six European countries has found that consumers generally understand how to 'read' the nutritional labels on a product's packaging but are less likely to use that information when selecting their products for purchase. The team of researchers also noted considerable differences between the six countries on the use and understanding of food labels. The findings are published in the Journal of Public Health. The results are based on a survey conducted by Professor Klaus Grunert of Aarhus University in Denmark and colleagues from the European Food Information Council (EUFIC). The study combined in-store observations and in-store interviews at major retail outlets along with take-home questionnaires. The sample covered 11,800 consumers from Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and the UK. For each country, data was collected from three different geographic locations. The researchers selected six product categories to narrow their focus: breakfast cereals, soft drinks, confectionery, ready meals, salty snacks and yoghurts. While on site, they then noted whether the shopper checked the front or back of the product's information labels (e.g. nutrition table, guideline daily amount or 'GDA' label, and the ingredients list), or whether they did not look at the information at all before adding the product to their shopping trolley for purchase. After the interview, the shoppers were also asked to complete a more comprehensive questionnaire at home. More than half of the participants completed and returned these questionnaires. The researchers measured the understanding of GDA front-of-pack nutrition labels through a series of questions based on GDA in general (objective understanding), information interpretation (subjective understanding), and whether the shoppers were able to distinguish between the nutritional value of different products based on the labels (health inferences). The findings show that only 16.8% of shoppers did in fact examine the nutritional information of the products they purchased. Of those that did, most scanned specifically for information on calories, fat and sugar content. When it comes to comparing use and understanding of the label information, the researchers noted a significant difference. The number of consumers that understand the nutritional information presented is much higher than the number of people that make use of the labels while at the store. In reference to strong recordings of participant understanding of food nutrition labels, the authors write in their paper that 'no matter whether with regard to single nutrients or with regard to overall healthiness, most respondents were able to come up with the right answers'. This suggests shoppers have little desire or feel no need to read information labels, rather than that they are incapable of interpreting the information and assessing how beneficial their purchase will be in terms of their health. The survey participants in Germany, Sweden and the UK recorded a higher understanding of GDA labels compared to the other countries in the study. With regard to national differences between use and understanding, the authors concluded that some 'may be attributed to different histories of the role of nutrition in the public debate'.
Countries
Germany, Denmark, France, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom