Traffic lights, GDAs, signposting – whatever format it takes in the end, front-of-pack nutritional labelling is something the UK’s Food Standards Agency is desperate to introduce in a bid to encourage healthy eating. While some manufacturers have been keen to introduce their own labelling schemes, others have been waiting for the FSA to decide on a format, as Helen Lewis reports.
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The Food Standards Agency (FSA) leads the labelling debate in its search for a unified, simple, front-of-pack signpost to encourage consumers to choose healthier foods. It is hoped that the search for this ‘holy grail’ will create a more open, honest and responsible industry as well as the evolution of better-informed and nutritionally aware consumers.
Amidst the labelling debate, Mark Wickens, chairman and director of Brandhouse WTS, believes a simple branding and design issue is being overlooked. Wickens told just-food: “The role of the front of pack is to grab attention and explain the brand story. Cramming nutritional information on the front of pack distracts from its primary function as the first sales opportunity. Shoppers turn to the back of pack to get more detailed information, typically about nutritional values, which often closes the deal.”
He believes there is already too much information on the front of food and drink products, alluding to failing advertising campaigns in the 1950s, which fired too many core messages to potential consumers.
A spokesperson for the FSA explained: “Signposting is not a replacement for back of pack labelling. We’re developing a front of labelling scheme because consumers have told us that they want a simple and efficient scheme which gives them ‘at a glance’ information regarding the content of the food and making healthier choices easier.”
In practice, Wickens says, “Consumers sub-consciously and quickly associate shapes, logos and colours with a ‘meaning’, which will vary throughout the supermarket as companies launch their own signpost schemes.” Conflicting schemes will cause confusion and only prolong the shopping experience – something all shoppers are keen to avoid. Using the crisps category as a prime example, the ongoing confusion surrounding the green and blue identities of cheese & onion/salt & vinegar variants has been going for years and still causes confusion. Wickens says: “In the ideal world there will be an industry-wide system on the back of packs to avoid confusion.”
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Two signposts have been earmarked in consumer tests – the ‘Simple’ and the ‘Multiple Traffic Light’. Following influence from the likes of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and the originators of the concept – the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) – guideline daily amounts have been added to the final phase of testing.
An FSA spokesperson confirmed: “The next stage is to undertake some quantitative research looking at consumers’ understanding and preference.” The FSA’s research will be published in the summer and “guidance” on the recommended scheme will be available later in the year.
Many major players are reluctant to wait any longer and want first-to-market status on the polemic subject of labelling, particularly the leading retailer Tesco, which launched its new own label front-of-pack signpost on its fresh soup range in April. The five colours will be standard on each product and the grams and percentage will always be provided per serving, based on the GDA for a female adult. The lack of tailoring with the GDA concept is a source of contention, as consumers may be unaware of the need, for example, to reduce intakes for children or increase intakes for more physically active males.
Easy on the eye
Hamish Renton told attendees at Leatherhead’s Weight Management conference in April: “Many labels assume you’re not smart enough to do anything with the information, but consumers are more than capable of working things out for themselves.” He added: “This is the first attempt by a retailer to do this seriously. It is not a knee-jerk reaction; we’ll be doing it in ten to 15 years time.”
Kellogg’s chose the GDA path in February 2005, adopting a bar chart approach including amounts of calories, fat, saturated fat, sugars, salt, calcium and iron and fibre per portion of cereal and compares these to GDA for adults. To further clarify the signpost, a side panel explains how GDA works and a third of the pack’s back will be devoted to a healthy lifestyle.
Indeed, the GDA concept is preferred over the traffic lights by many industry members. Martin Paterson, the deputy director general of the FDF said: “We welcome the Agency’s exploration of GDAs. It is important to distinguish between schemes which actually help the consumer and those which are ‘easy on the eye’ like over-simplistic traffic lights.”
A uniform labelling scheme
While the focus of debate surrounds traffic lights versus GDA, Adri Bester, nutritionist at the London Food Centre, points to more specific inaccuracies in the area of carbohydrate and sugar labelling. Bester told just-food: “A food company that hadn’t kept abreast of nutritional knowledge recently formulated a new ‘diabetic muesli bar’, replacing all sucrose sources with dextrins in the belief that ‘sugar’ replacement would improve blood glucose control. However, such wisdom was obsolete, because sucrose, being half fructose and half glucose induces a much lower blood glucose response than dextrins. The new diabetic bar had a greater glycemic impact and contributed more carbohydrates than the unmodified version”. Inevitably, size limitations will always dictate the depth of nutritional information provided on packs. Bester added: “Nutrition science is constantly advancing and the more we research, the clearer it becomes. Unmanaged information on the other hand causes confusion, and consumer confidence is a precious marketing tool.”
The British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) falls largely on the GDA side of the fence expressing “reservations” about the traffic light scheme. Aside from the potential categorisation of ‘good fats’ like olive oil as red, the BNF is not alone in its concerns about how consumers will interpret traffic light labelling. Claire Williamson, Nutrition Scientist at BNF, told just-food: “Would [consumers] see green as a licence to eat as much of a food as they like? This would not be appropriate as it would be inconsistent with the basic message about variety.”
As companies strive to better inform their consumers in advance of the FSA’s final recommendation, there is the inevitable potential of mixed messages as consumers buy different brands and own label products during their weekly shop. Williamson says: “It would be more helpful for consumers if the same labelling scheme was used across the board”. In fact, the FDF adds: “The food and drinks companies live or die by the extent to which they understand their own consumers and deliver according to their needs. Governments are rarely successful in ‘second guessing’ these relationships”.
Two choices
With a raft of front of pack innovation, Louise Diss, director of the national charity The Obesity Awareness & Solutions Trust, believes the simple truth is that people want to know what they are really eating with a simple and clear label. Diss told just-food: “How many people wander around the supermarket with a calculator so that they can decipher the labels whilst remembering that proteins and carbohydrates have four calories a gram, while fat has nine?”
The popular vote is swinging towards GDA, which could well be the answer shoppers are looking for, but in the meantime, companies have two choices: either to adopt their own signposts based on their own customer research or await the FSA’s final decision. Food labelling is extremely confusing to most of us and food companies adopting unique schemes could exacerbate the situation. The simple truth is that there may not be a single answer to the search for the perfect label.
