New research shows that understanding and use of nutritional information on food is significantly higher in the UK than in other European countries, while controversy over variations in UK labelling practices continues.

The researchers watched supermarket shoppers in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Hungary and Poland. `We did this for selected product categories, where we knew that nutritional labels are usually or often present,’ Professor Klaus Grunert, Director of the Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector (MAPP) at Aarhus University in Denmark, told People & Science.

`We watched people at the shelf where these products were and recorded how much time they spent, whether they looked at the product in any detail before putting it into the trolley… When they had chosen at least one product from the particular shelf there, we contacted them and asked… some questions.’ Following the in-store interview, the shoppers were given a longer questionnaire including questions on understanding labelling systems.

There has been substantial debate over the merits of different labelling systems. Recently the Food Standards Agency announced that its voluntary front-of-pack food labelling scheme would advocate showing levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt using three standard `interpretive elements’: per cent Guideline Daily Amount (%GDA), text (high/medium/low) and traffic light colours (red/amber/green).

Clare Boville of the UK Food Standards Agency told People & Science, `Some businesses are only providing %GDA and we are very clear that %GDA on its own is not sufficient. So we’re encouraging them to add to what they are already doing, on a voluntary basis. We see that very much as an interim step. We want to see businesses applying all three elements.’

However, Peter Vicary-Smith, Chief Executive of the campaigning consumer group Which? wants all businesses to use all three elements now. He says, `When all the evidence shows that a single combined nutrition labelling scheme works best for consumers, it seems ludicrous to… [allow] companies to persist with their own different schemes.’

`The UK leads on all the indicators [in our research],’ says Grunert. `I believe… controversy [in the UK] about traffic lights and GDA… has resulted in a lot more awareness and interest. It probably shows what can be done over a series of years when one puts this topic on the public agenda in a way that people also find interesting.

Grunert notes, however, that use is lower than understanding. He says, `Of course [making labels easy to understand] is important, but actually, maybe [it is] more important to think about ways to encourage consumers actually to use the information.’