Last week FSA in the UK published this 158 page report on Comprehension and use of UK nutrition signpost labelling schemes. It’s called the final report on front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition signpost labelling.

A lot of effort went into preparing this report. It has both qualitative and quantitative elements, and a group of independent experts oversaw the work.

I certainly like the qualitative part. It brings new and valuable insights into how and why consumers use FOP labeling. Or maybe more important why consumers do NOT read and use food labeling.

In the UK there is a labeling war between the Food and Drink Industry who advocates for GDA and FSA and others who advocate for traffic light labeling. This also determined what schemes were studied in this project. Unfortunately no alternatives Traffic Light and GDA were included. The FSA Traffic Light, the GDA label and the new hybrid (see below) are unfortunately not as fast and easy to read and interpret ‘at a glance’ as I think they ought to be.

The report concludes that consumers would like the FOP labeling mess in the UK cleaned up in order to avoid unnecessary confusion. And – SUPRISE – the report recommends a combination of Traffic Lights and GDA to be the way forward. This has the potential to be a possible compromise in the UK. You can see the hybrid label below. Notice the colors AND the %GDA values in the lower row.

Here are the important links:

The new report it self

An excecutive summary

Slides from the launch

What others wrote about the report:

Sustain wrote:
The public is very clear that they only want one labelling scheme and so industry is now under enormous pressure to use the hybrid labels, including traffic light colours and the words ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’. Any company that doesn’t now adopt the public’s favourite system will be exposed as putting their profits before their customers’ health.

Sue Davies from Which? told the Guardian:
If the food industry really is serious about helping consumers make healthy choices then it must accept the study’s findings, start pulling in the same direction and adopt the labelling scheme that works best for consumers.

The British Heart Foundation in Medical News Today:
It’s time for food companies to stop making excuses, support one system and ensure shoppers are given the ‘at a glance’ information they need.