Archive for category Food labeling

The European food industry spend €1-billion to avoid traffic labelling

Download the report hereThe anti-lobbyism organization Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)  just published a report documenting some of the methods CIAA and their members used to influence members of European Parliament leading up to the voting yesterday. CEO estimates that 1 billion euros was spend on lobbying for GDA. I can assure you that our stopGDA.eu campaign was much much cheaper ;-)

Enjoy reading the report. Their insights are amazing and spot on.

A red light for consumer information
The food industry’s €1-billion campaign to block health warnings on food

Validity and reliability testing of questionnaire assessing consumers’ use, understanding and perception of food labels

A new questionnaire for assessing consumers’ use, understanding and perception of food labels is proposed in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It clearly illustrates the complexity of food labelling.

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New objective and scientific food nutrient profiling system proposed by US researchers

Adam Drewnowski, PhD, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington and collegues have proposed a new, positive and science-based approach to inform people about what to eat rather than what not to eat.

Outlined in this month’s issue of the Journal of Nutrition, the Nutrient-Rich Foods (NRF) Index proposes a new model for ranking foods based on their nutrient composition, which could be used to help consumers improve their diets.

Pubmed and Nutraingredients-usa.

Snackwise – A new rating system for snacks

Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital developed Snackwise®. It’s a research-based snack rating system that calculates Nutrient Density in snack foods. Snackwise® is designed for use by any organization or individual interested in making healthier snack choices. It based on the content of 10 nutrients + energy.

Visit snackwise.org. A list of healthy snacks on the US market.

6 arguments against Smart Choices Food Labeling

The “Smart Choices” front of package food labeling scheme officially launches this week. 500 Packaged foods from ConAgra, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Kraft, PepsiCo, Sun-Maid, Tyson and Unilever are already approved. On fooducator.com you can find arguments why this kind of food labelling is far form being the best food labelling.

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The Food Industry Agrees: Food Labels are Misleading

According to The International Food Information Council, these are the top 3 “challenges” consumers face with the nutrition panel:
1. Misleading serving size.
2. Consumers do not consider their consumption of foods and beverages in the context of their daily intake. This is also true, as 63% of consumers do not know what their daily calorie intake should be. Do you know yours?
3. Consumers do not realize information to help them interpret daily context exists on nutrition panels.

The recommendations are:
1. Clarify serving size.
2. Call attention to daily intake.
3. Increase trustworthiness.

Hemi from fooducate also mentions the top 4 influences on a purchase decision as:
1. Taste
2. Price
3. Healthfulness
4. Convenience

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Potential impact of a Dutch food labelling scheme calculated

choicesThe Dutch Choices Programme (a checkmark food labelling scheme) can if all consumers replace normally consumed foods with foods that carry the Choices health stamp potentially lead to substantial improvements in nutrient intakes. Including a 15% reduction in energy intake.

See abstract.

And visit www.choicesinternational.org

Bogus Serving Sizes

Fooducate.com shows examples of how manufacturers trick consumers into believing their product is manna from heaven. A great example is the tiny serving sizes for foods of problematic nutritional value. By decreasing the portion size to 3 year old consumption standards, the calorie count in junk food seems decent.

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Consumers don’t trust food industry portion sizes

Foodnavigator reports that IDG recently conducted focus groups and a quantitative survey of 1,067 adults aged 15 and over in April 2009. It shows that consumers don’t trust food industry portion sizes.

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Let FSA know what you think about colour coded GDA-labels

A new consultation starts today in the UK.  It’s about the colour coded GDA front-of-pack labelling proposed recently in this report. The deadline for comments is November 5th 2009.

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