UK Leads the Way on Labelling, Shows EU Project

“This research is unprecedented: no-one has tried to conduct an audit on this scale before. And the initial results are hugely significant for the debate on labelling that is happening here in the UK.

04/05/09 The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has welcomed the announcement of the first results from a new research project being supported by the European Commission, which shows how information based on Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) is not only widespread here in the UK, but is also present in all other EU Member States and Turkey.

The first phase of the ‘FLABEL project’ involved an audit of all the different types of nutrition information available on more than 35,000 products in five food and drink categories (sweet biscuits, breakfast cereals, ready meals, carbonated soft drinks and yoghurts) in three retailers in each of the 28 countries.

In relation to the GDA findings, the researchers found that:

· Front-of-pack nutrition information appeared on 82% of products audited in the UK – compared with a European average of 48%

· GDA information was found on 63% of products audited in the UK

· GDAs are the most prevalent form of front-of-pack information across Europe and can be found on 25% of the products audited.

Julian Hunt, FDF’s Director of Communications, said:

“This research is unprecedented: no-one has tried to conduct an audit on this scale before. And the initial results are hugely significant for the debate on labelling that is happening here in the UK.

“The results about GDA labelling show high penetration for a system that has been developed on a voluntary basis in the UK. More importantly, we believe this research underlines the fact that the UK has led the debate across Europe. It would appear that our experiences are clearly encouraging other countries to introduce GDA information on packs and this is reflected by the prevalence across Europe.

“Labelling is an EU regulatory competency and the European Institutions are now negotiating a new EU Regulation. This will set out a clear regulatory framework that will govern the way that nutrition information is presented on packs in future. Discussions on this new Regulation will be informed by the results of independent research projects such as FLABEL.”