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The European
Food Information Council
Your guide to food safety & quality and health & nutrition for a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle.
Labelling foods as 'low in salt’ may not reduce actual salt intakes      Beetroot may lower blood pressure and bread could serve as a ‘useful vehicle’ for delivery      EFSA and ECDC release new European Union Summary Report on Trends and Sources of Zoonoses      Coffee consumption may be linked to lower risk of type 2 diabetes      Eating a combination of cholesterol-lowering foods may reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol levels      Skipping breakfast may increase food intake at lunchtime      Review confirms that cocoa flavonoids may reduce cholesterol      The Nordic diet – is it as healthy as the Mediterranean?      EUFIC reviews European consumers’ responses to health claims      Taking folic acid supplements for pregnancy linked to child’s speech development      Link found between inactivity and poor child health      Gut health: the role of bacteria, probiotics and prebiotics      Lack of attention and motivation major obstacles for nutrition labelling use, says EU study      Nutrition labelling can guide consumers but a lack of motivation and attention stand in the way of healthier food choices      Europe's babies put at risk due to variance in nutrient recommendations      Do Europeans want governments to direct their eating choices?      Policies for a healthier European diet: are they effective?      Low vitamin D levels among European adolescents      Mind vs. Stomach? Food perceptions may also influence hunger and fullness      “Hidden vegetables” may help reduce energy intake and increase vegetable consumption in adults      Dietary constituents and supplements – can they affect mental energy?      Systematic review of ‘nutritively sweetened beverage’ consumption and an association with bodyweight struggles to find conclusive evidence      Information on cooking of sprouted seeds and the E. coli O104 outbreaks      Stakeholders advise on essential actions for the catering sector when implementing healthier eating strategies      
EU-funded research project FLABEL announces its final results on nutrition labelling

Listen in to the webinar of the results of the EU-funded project FLABEL, on-line NOW! 

Nutrition labels are a potentially useful tool for enabling consumers to make healthier choices about food. However, scientific insights into how these labels are used in real-life shopping situations are limited. The pan-European project FLABEL (Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life) was set up to fully examine the factors which lead from labelling to dietary intake. FLABEL, which involved academic experts from eight European universities, two major retail organisations, and representatives of European consumer and industry associations, has provided state-of-the-art research on consumer behaviour and nutrition labels.

The results from this three-and-a-half-year project will be presented in a webinar by Prof. Klaus Grunert from Aarhus University, Denmark, who is FLABEL’s Scientific Advisor, following a brief introduction by Dr. Laura Fernández Celemín from EUFIC, who is the FLABEL Coordinator. The webinar is available free of charge (login required) on the project website at http://flabel.org/en/News/FLABEL-final-webinar/.

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EUFIC publishes January 2012 “Global Update on Nutrition Labelling”
NEW January 2012 Edition:
What becomes mandatory in Europe with the new EU Regulation on Food Information to Consumers? What does the Institute of Medicine recommend for a standard “Front-Of-Pack” system in the USA? How did Australia and New Zealand governments respond to traffic light recommendations in the Labelling Logic report?
EUFIC and partner food information organisations have produced a January 2012 edition of the Global Update on Nutrition Labelling, which can now be purchased here. It is directed to those that have a particular interest in the state of nutrition labelling around the world, both from a regulatory perspective and beyond. Browse the UPDATED Table of Contents and the NEW Executive Summary.
Podcasts
Hydration For Health 02/04/2012
Hydration: A Basic Aspect in Nutrition 02/04/2012
FoodRisC: Conceptualising food risk and benefit 07/03/2012
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Publications: Open Access
EUFIC's peer-reviewed science-based research on food is available via Open Access wherever possible. Recent publications:
 
Penetration of nutrition information on food labels across the EU-27 plus Turkey, September 2010 in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
 
Nutrition knowledge, and use and understanding of nutrition information on food labels among consumers in the UK, May 2010 in Appetite
 
Use and understanding of nutrition information on food labels in six European countries, January 2010 in Journal of Public Health
 
Consumer preferences for front-of-pack calories labelling, February 2008 in Public Health Nutrition
 
A review of European research on consumer response to nutrition information on food labels, April 2007 in Journal of Public Health
 
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New EUFIC Review on Fruit & Vegetable intake in Europe
A majority of European citizens associate a healthy diet with fruit and vegetable consumption, and many of them believe that their diet is healthy. But is this true? Do people in Europe actually get the amounts of fruit and vegetables recommended for good health? Aiming to answer this question, this new EUFIC Review also looks deeper into what factors influence fruit and vegetable consumption in Europe, and what are the best intervention approaches to increase it. Lastly, we will have a glance at on-going European initiatives around fruit and vegetable consumption.
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How do consumers respond to portion information?
Nutritional labellingHow do consumers respond to portion information on food and drink labels?
 
Listen to EUFIC’s recorded webinar in the EUFIC Multimedia Centre, and
read EUFIC Forum No. 5 "Consumer response to portion information on food and drink packaging. A pan-European study" 
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Making the most of EUFIC

Take a quick tour around the website and get a better idea of what you can find and how you can maximise its full potential.

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Media Backgrounders

If you need a quick and easy insight into food safety & quality and health & nutrition the EUFIC Media Backgrounders provide concise, factual and reliable information that you can freely use for your articles and reports.

Adult nutrition
Agriculture
Carbohydrates
Child and adolescent nutrition
Dental health
Fats
Focus on Stevia
Food additives
Food allergy and food intolerance
Food safety
Functional foods
Nutrition Basics
Obesity and overweight
Physical activity
The Basics - Nutrition
The Basics - Proteins
Types of exercise
Whole grain Fact Sheet
What’s new on sweeteners?
On 11 November 2011, the European Union granted final regulatory approval for the use of stevia extracts (steviol glycosides) in foods and beverages
Under European legislation all additives, including sweeteners, must undergo a safety assessment by EFSA and must meet other criteria before being approved for use by the European Commission. Once a sweetener has been approved for use, it is given an E number.  
 
Questions and answers on aspartame
Available for over 30 years, aspartame is approved for use in more than 100 countries around the world. Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly tested food additives in history with a comprehensive body of studies done in humans and animals. All of these studies demonstrate that aspartame is safe for human consumption. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reconfirmed the safety of aspartame in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
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Science Briefs
In this section, we feature scientific publications of new research from Europe and the rest of the world, that may be of interest to EUFIC readers. EUFIC was not involved in this research, unless stated otherwise.
Labelling foods as 'low in salt’ may not reduce actual salt intakes 16/05/2012
Beetroot may lower blood pressure and bread could serve as a ‘useful vehicle’ for delivery 09/05/2012
EFSA and ECDC release new European Union Summary Report on Trends and Sources of Zoonoses 02/05/2012
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ABOUT EUFIC
The European Food Information Council (EUFIC) is a non-profit organisation which communicates science-based information on nutrition and health, food safety and quality, to help consumers to be better informed when choosing a well-balanced, safe and healthful diet.

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This site was last updated 18/05/2012
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