Labels on Food Are Confusing Shoppers

FOOD nutrition labels are causing confusion among some consumers, the chair of a panel of independent experts said yesterday.

The findings, published halfway through the Food Standards Agency’s pounds 670,000 study into nutritional labels, reveal that shoppers can have trouble understanding the traffic light-style colour system, pie graphs and guideline daily amount (GDA) figures.

Chair of the panel, chief Government social researcher Sue Duncan, said: “The current front-of-pack labelling systems are still causing confusion.”

This first stage of research involved 100 accompanied shopping trips where researchers trailed shoppers who were asked to talk through their buying decisions in the aisles and their use of front- of-pack nutrition labels was monitored.

A further 100 in-depth bag audits were conducted at the checkout and at shoppers’ homes, their contents were examined and the shoppers were encouraged to discuss the decisions made for their purchases.

The study found that a lack of numeracy among shoppers caused confusion for a significant number who felt that the GDA percentage figures required complex mathematical calculations.

Shoppers were also reluctant to use the nutrition labels for cakes, chocolate and sweets, reasoning that they already knew the indulgences were bad for them and wanted to treat themselves anyway.

Similarly they ignored the labels for basic items like milk, flour and bread because they were regarded as everyday essentials.

(c) 2008 The Journal – Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.