UK grocery retailer The Co-op is to introduce on-shelf labelling of the fat, salt and calorie content of certain products to see if it influences customers’ shopping decisions.
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The new system, which will be tested at ten stores in London and Glasgow, will provide information about whether levels of salt, calories and fat are high, medium or low in 300 major brand products. Sales figures and customer exit polls with be used to evaluate the influence of the labels on shopping habits, reported BBC News Online.
The 300 products involved include foods such as biscuits, cereals, sauces and yoghurt, and brands including Kellogg, Nestlé and Loyd Grossman.
“Our customers are much more concerned nowadays about their fat intake but we wanted to make that information easy to understand, more upfront and also across all products,” Co-op spokeswoman Christine Clarke told the BBC.
“Using a system which is high, medium and low, puts it in context, makes customers make easier, better choices,” she added.
The Co-op plans to pass on the findings from the experiment to the UK’s Food Standards Agency.
