Stopping traffic

A debate is taking place right now in Europe about how best to inform consumers about the nutritional content of their food. The outcome of this debate will have a significant impact on the capacity of policymakers and business to influence the nutritional decisions of consumers and ultimately people’s health in a positive way. It is important that we get this right. Kellogg has considerable expertise in what works when it comes to communicating with consumers. Since the late 1940s we have pioneered nutrition information to European consumers carried on our product packaging.

Drawing on this expertise, and in cooperation with other major food and drink industry companies, in 2006 we developed a simplified nutrition information scheme in the form of guideline daily amounts (GDA). This is a guide which provides the consumer with information on the amount of calories, sugars, fat, saturates and salt contained in a portion of, for example, Kellogg’s Cornflakes.

It also indicates the percentage that these amounts contribute to a person’s recommended daily requirements. This information is displayed on the front of our packs to deliver simple, at-a-glance, objective information for people to be able to make an informed choice in the little time they utilise when they do their grocery shopping.  

The European roll-out of the GDA scheme has been a major success. A consumer survey conducted in the UK, where already more than 50 per cent of all packaged food and drink displays GDA labels, showed that 84 per cent of consumers understood the GDA scheme and 62 per cent were actively using it.

The GDA scheme is now being used on 98 per cent of Kellogg’s food packaging throughout the EU. To evaluate its impact the European food information council (EUFIC) has commissioned a pan-European research study on how nutrition information on food labels affects consumers’ purchase decisions. The results of the survey are expected in November.  

We realise that comprehensive education programmes are essential for consumers to reap the full benefits of the GDA scheme. We are already supporting this via our website and information campaigns in several EU countries and we will continue to do so. Once familiar with GDAs, consumers will be able to use them for their own individual needs. This will enable them to make choices that are most suitable for their lifestyle.

While we favour simplicity, we believe that a colour coded ‘traffic light’ system on packs, as currently suggested in the UK, misses the opportunity to empower consumers to judge and be responsible for their own food choices. By cutting the consumer options down to what is basically ‘stop’ or ‘go’, the traffic light system does not encourage the consumer to educate himself. The incentive to take a real interest in order to make an informed choice, which should be the hallmark of the sophisticated 21st-century consumer, is simply lost.

The already successful GDA approach should be given the opportunity to prove it’s full worth. Kellogg strongly backs its take-up in the proposal for the EU regulation on the provision of food information to consumers.

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