Consumers reveal broad understanding of how to use labels.
Study provides important consumer insights, says DG SANCO Director General Robert Madelin.

As the European Institutions continue to discuss the European Commission’s draft regulation on food information to consumers, a pan-European study by EUFIC, the European Food Information Council, provides further food for thought.

The study, which was presented and discussed at the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health last month, surveyed some 17,300 people in France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and the UK, both in supermarkets and at home. It found that on average only 18% of Europeans (ranges from 27% in UK to 9% in France) look for nutrition information on food packaging in-store.

“I welcome EUFIC’s EU Platform commitment to produce scientific research like this” commented Robert Madelin, Director General, DG SANCO. "The study provides a detailed analysis of the way consumers understand and use nutrition labels. Its' results will help decision makers to understand what remain highly complex issues, and the findings provide important new elements for those responsible for diet and lifestyle education."

Independent market research agencies carried out the field work in each country and Professor Klaus Grunert from Aarhus University, Denmark, analysed all the data.

Results showed that the better established forms of nutrition information on labels such as the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) scheme, was widely recognised and understood by shoppers.

“While there are several labelling schemes across Europe, our findings show that people recognise them and generally have a high appreciation of how to use them to make informed nutritional choices”, commented Professor Grunert.

Real life in-store behaviour
Among those looking for nutrition information, the Nutrition Table is the most frequently mentioned source of nutrition information in Germany, Sweden, Hungary and Poland, while in the UK and France nutrition information was most looked for in the GDA labelling system. In countries where food additives were identified as important information (Hungary, France and Poland), the ingredients list was also cited.

Colour coded schemes such as traffic lights also met with high levels of awareness but were open to some misinterpretation as people tended to exaggerate the meaning of the colour-coded levels, with 73% of shoppers in the UK believing that a ‘red’ light indicated they should avoid eating a product.

Sweden, which uses a keyhole logo to identify the healthier product in a food category, had the highest awareness of any labelling system at 95%. Subjective and actual understanding of the system was also the highest. 61% of shoppers said they would look for other information even if the keyhole logo was present.

Consumers were fairly confident that they understood the labelling systems. This was well-founded, because across all countries, at least half could correctly solve a number of tasks involving interpretation of GDA and other nutrition information on labels.

A new finding was that people spend an average of 35 seconds selecting a product. By comparison to previous studies, this is substantially more time than previously observed.

Consumers were more likely to look for nutrition information when health and nutrition were their primary reasons for choosing a particular product. Convenience clearly played a role in purchasing decisions for ready meals, while taste was the most important deciding factor across all product categories in most countries.

Labelling of key nutrients
Calories was the information most frequently sought by shoppers in four out of the six markets. However, UK consumers looked for fat content before calories, whilst Swedish consumers looked equally for sugar and fat followed by calories. Fat was among the top three in all countries as was sugar, whereas salt was in the top 5 only for Germany and the UK. Other information sought included food additives, vitamins and fibre.

When given a realistic choice set of three products within the same category, including all package information, more than 70% can correctly identify the most healthy product in France, Germany, and the UK, and still about 50% in Hungary, Poland and Sweden. These figures do not seem to be influenced by which labelling scheme is adopted on the packaging. Calories and fat levels drove healthier choices, but salt and saturated fat levels were largely ignored. The younger age group was better at finding the right answers, and people with more nutrition knowledge gave more correct answers.

Higher social grade positively impacted upon looking for nutrition information and the level of nutrition knowledge.

Getting it right and getting it wrong – over & under estimations
When probed as to the fat, sugar or salt content of a range of foods and drinks, the majority of respondents were able to answer correctly. On average, respondents in the UK, Hungary and Germany got 70% of the responses right, 60% in Sweden and France, and 57% in Poland.

When they got the answer wrong, respondents consistently over-exaggerated actual levels. Similarly, all countries over-estimated the calorie content of alcoholic drinks.

Across Europe, people tended to significantly underestimate the calories (energy) expended by everyday activities.

When asked how many calories the average adult needs per day, 46% or less answered correctly. Women fared slightly better than men. Most Europeans knew that men need more calories than women and that seniors need fewer calories. Worryingly, over a third of respondents, and over half in Poland, think that children need more calories than an adult man, raising public health questions about portion sizes and over-feeding in relation to childhood obesity.

Broader nutrition messages are being understood but still confusion about fats
As well as probing the use and understanding of labelling, the study questioned peoples’ general levels of nutrition knowledge. More than 95% knew they should increase their fruit and vegetable consumption, over 73% answered correctly about eating more wholegrain (except 49% France), and over 65% about fibre.

Knowledge of consuming more omega 3 fatty acids ranged from 47% (Poland) to 88% (Sweden). However, polyunsaturated fats seem less well understood, with under half of all respondents correctly thinking they should consume more. Over 60% state you should eat less or try to avoid trans fat (TFA), and 68% for saturated fat.

Ends

A webinar presentation of the results of the pan-European study by Dr Josephine Wills and Professor Klaus Grunert is available at: http://www.focusbiz.co.uk/webinars/eufic/paneuropeanlabelresearch/europe/video/05Nov08media.wmv

For further information please contact:
Laura Smillie, Communications Manager, laura.smillie@eufic.org, Tel. 32 2 506 89 85