C CA AM M

P PA AI IG G

N NR R

E EP PO O

R RT T

for all consumers

It can be difficult to work out how much fat,sugar and salt different foods contain – butthese are the nutrients that are of mostpublic health significance given high deathrates from cancer and heart disease andrising rates of obesity. Many of us shop in ahurry and don’t have time to examine thenutrition information panel in much detail.And with greater reliance on processed foodsit can be difficult to tell easily whichproducts arehealthier andwhich aren’t. New Which?researchconfirms thatmultiple trafficlight labellingis the mostuseful systemfor consumers.Retailers andmanufacturersmust adoptthis labellingscheme on thefront of thepack as well asfull nutritioninformation onthe back of thepack.

July 2006

HEALTHYSIGNS?

Which? wants retailers and manufacturers

to adopt the FSA’s multiple traffic light

nutrition labelling scheme on the front

of the pack as well as full nutrition

information on the back of pack.

campaign report 3

WHICH? RESEARCH

Several food manufacturers and retailers have announced plans to introducesimplified front-of-pack nutrition labelling. Which? research comparing fournutrition labelling schemes has found that traffic light labelling is the most usefulsystem for consumers. This reinforces the findings of Food Standards Agency(FSA) research.

The scheme currently being used by Tesco came out as the weakest in the Which?research. Despite this, a new Which? food industry survey has found that severalmanufacturers and some retailers intend to use this scheme or one similar to it.Encouragingly, four retailers (Asda, the Co-operative Group, Sainsbury’s andWaitrose) have said they are using, or intend to use, traffic light labelling asproposed by the FSA. Marks and Spencer has also told us that it is intendinginitially to put traffic light labelling on the back of its packaging.

> the FSA’s traffic light labelling proposal

> Tesco’s scheme

> a variation of the Tesco scheme beingadopted by some food manufacturers

> Tesco’s scheme with traffic lightsapplied.

Which? is calling for all manufacturersand retailers to follow their exampleand use multiple traffic light labelling,rather than opting for schemes thatmay show their products in a morepositive light but which are not sohelpful.

Which? presented four labellingformats to more than 600 consumers:

FSA

Other Manufacturers

Tesco

Tesco with traffic lights

The different schemes mocked upand presented in the research

KEY FINDINGS

campaign report4

The red for the high salt - it grabsyou straight away. Orange close to redshowing you it’s medium. The colours

”“

fit it properly. Its clearer to see

> The FSA’s traffic light labelling scheme came out as the best system throughoutour test. Consumers were able to use the information correctly and it was easy tounderstand and quick to use.

> The FSA scheme not only came out well overall, it also performed well for peoplein lower socio-economic groups and people who would not normally use foodlabels.

> The current Tesco system was the weakest scheme. Although it helped manypeople to compare between products, the number of people able to compareproducts correctly was significantly lower than the FSA scheme. It also wasn’t asquick to use. People from lower socio-economic groups particularly struggled tocompare between products using the Tesco labelling scheme.

> The Tesco system performed poorly for two main reasons: only a minority had avery good understanding of how to use the guideline daily amount (GDA)information on which it is based [see page 7]; and the Tesco colour-coding ofnutrients was confusing, with only a minority of consumers correctly identifyingwhat the colours used meant.

> The scheme being used by some food manufacturers (the Tesco scheme withoutany colours) and the Tesco scheme with traffic lights applied performed verysimilarly – doing slightly better than the Tesco scheme, but all three GDA-basedschemes did less well than the FSA one.

Woman, Tamworth

This included testing four sign-postingmodels with 2676 consumers: a singletraffic light, a multiple traffic light, acolour coded guideline daily amount(GDA) based system and a black andwhite GDA based system. The multipletraffic light (MTL), using red, amberand green to indicate whether a productis high, medium or low in keynutrients, was well liked and performedbest, particularly in identifying quicklythe key nutritional characteristics of asingle food. The colour-coded GDA alsoperformed well, particularly whencomparing two foods, and it was mostliked by consumers. But while theinformation on nutrient levels washelpful for product comparisons, inpractice consumers had somedifficulty in using the GDAinformation.

Based on its research, theFSA Board has thereforerecommended that front-of-packlabelling schemes should:

The FSA has recommended thatinitially the scheme should be used onready meals, breakfast cereals, pizzas,sandwiches and foods such as burgers,sausages, pies, breaded, coated orformed meat, meat alternative, poultryand fish products. Which? would like tosee the scheme applied across abroader range of foods.

campaign report 5

FACT:

Around aquarter of thepopulation isobese

BACKGROUND

Over the last two years the FSA has carried out extensive research to find outwhich front-of-pack labelling system helps consumers to understand at a glancewhich foods can make a positive contribution to a healthy diet and which shouldbe eaten only in moderation or sparingly.

> provide separate information on fat,saturated fat, sugar and salt

> use red, amber or green colour codingto indicate whether levels of thesenutrients are high, medium or low

> use nutritional criteria developed by theFSA to determine the colour code

> give information on the levels ofnutrients per portion of product.

The colour labelsmakes it easier to see”“

Man, Tamworth - talking about the multiple traffic light scheme

campaign report6 campaign report6

FACT:

The UK hasthe secondhighestproportion ofobese adultsin the EU

The FSA does not have the powers to legislate, but instead can onlyencourage manufacturers and retailers to use its scheme. This isbecause food labelling legislation is decided by the European Union.The nutrition labelling directive is under review providing anopportunity to try and agree an EU-wide scheme. In the meantime,we are reliant on the food industry acting responsibly and adoptingthe scheme that works best for consumers. Unfortunately severalcompanies have decided not to.

Four retailers have so far publicly stated that they intend to base theirlabelling on the FSA’s principles: Asda, the Co-operative Group,Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.

Tesco pre-empted the FSA research by instead opting for a GDA-based scheme with different colour coding. Under the Tesco schemegreen indicates fat, lighter green indicates saturates, pink indicatessugar, yellow indicates salt and blue indicates calories. This differsfrom the FSA’s colours which indicate the levels of the nutrientspresent in the food. Unlike the FSA scheme, the Tesco colours do notchange according to whether the food is high, medium or low in thenutrients.

Several manufacturers (Danone, Kellogg’s, Kraft, Nestlé and Pepsico)announced ahead of the FSA Board’s conclusions that they would bepresenting information in the same way as Tesco but without usingits colour coding.

A VOLUNTARYSCHEME

The TESCO Scheme

The MANUFACTURERS’ Scheme

campaign report 7

Guideline daily amounts (GDAs) are a rough guide to the nutrient levelswe should eat in a day. Individual requirements may be different, butGDAs generalise across the population for men and for women. Theyare derived from population dietary goals set by the Government’sexpert scientific committee on nutrition. Several retailers andmanufacturers indicate GDAs on the back of pack along with nutritioninformation. Some are now basing front of pack schemes on GDAs. TheTesco scheme, for example, shows nutrition information on the front ofproducts as a percentage of the GDA.

The criteria the FSA has proposed for traffic lightsalso relate to these dietary goals and to GDAs. But

they interpret what nutrient levels in aproduct mean compared against these goalsby using red, amber and green to show

whether the level is high, medium or low.

The GDAs that food manufacturers and retailers areusing were developed by the Institute of Grocery

Distribution (IGD), an industry body. However, in developing its sign-posting scheme, the FSA has proposed a stricter level for sugar than theIGD based on advice from an expert advisory group.

GUIDELINE DAILY AMOUNTS,TRAFFIC LIGHTS AND DIETARY GOALS

Not really very clear,the percentages & all thedifferent colours”

“Woman talking about the Tesco scheme, Croydon

campaign report8

LATEST

WHICH? RESEARCH

Which? wants sign-post labelling to be based on consumer research to ensure theformat used is the one most helpful to consumers and to be applied consistentlyby all retailers and manufacturers. Sign-post labelling should be simple and makehealthier choices easier. A range of different labelling schemes will add toconsumer confusion and make healthier choices more difficult. We have thereforesupported the scheme that research has shown to be most useful to consumers:multiple traffic lights.

As Tesco, and the manufacturers thatare using a similar scheme, haveclaimed their schemes are more helpfulto consumers, we decided to test themalong-side the FSA scheme. Although

the FSA research did compare a colour-coded GDA system, this was a differentdesign to the Tesco scheme. We wantedto see how the Tesco scheme and thefood manufacturers’ scheme comparedto the FSA recommended one. We alsodecided to add traffic light colours tothe Tesco scheme to see if this was apossible way forward and acompromise between the differenttypes of schemes being used. Asda hasalso indicated that it intends to use asimilar scheme to this.

mean anything - traffic lights

”would be betterWoman, Weston-super-Mare

Colour blue doesn't“

campaign report 9

OUR

METHODOLOGY

The different labelling scheme waspresented to them on a healthier andless healthy version of the followingproducts: a breakfast cereal, a pastasauce and a ready meal.

The people we spoke to wererepresentative of shoppers in GreatBritain and were aged between 18 and65. We also included a boost sample ofpeople from lower socio-economicgroups (social grades D and E), becausethese groups generally have less healthydiets and are usually more at risk fromdiet-related disease. When applyingtraffic light colours, we used the FSA’s

draft nutrition criteria. These do notapply to calories, but calories areincluded in the Tesco scheme. When weapplied colour-coding to the Tescoscheme, we based the levels for red,amber and green on the same principlesas the FSA criteria for fat, saturates,sugar and salt.

16 17 17 1630 30 30 30

44 48 43 4537 32 32 25

28 23 27 26 141415

12

677677

8187878888

Salt Fats SaturatedFat Sugar Fibre Calories Vitamins Minerals

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

IMPORTANCE OF HAVING INFORMATIONABOUT NUTRIENTS ON THE FRONT OF PACK

Absolutely necessary Very important Fairly important

To ensure a comprehensive evaluation of the four labelling schemes we used a market researchmethodology known as a four-cell monadic test.

The research took place in Tamworth, Birmingham, Chester, Croydon and Weston-super-Marebetween 28th April and 5th May 2006.

Base 636

Which? interviewed 636 people face to face. Each person was asked to rate justone scheme in detail. Therefore over 150 people were asked about each of the fourschemes.

USE OF LABELS> One in four people we interviewed

said they found nutrition labellingdifficult to understand, but it was moreof a problem for people from lowersocio-economic groups. The nutrientsthat people thought were mostimportant to have on front of packwere salt, fat, saturated fat and sugar.

> Two thirds of the people we spoke tosaid that they had heard of GDAs, butonly one in five actively used them.Younger people, women and those onhigher incomes were most likely to saythey had a very or fairly goodunderstanding of GDAs.

FSA

Tesco

Other manufacturers

Tesco with traffic lights

HOW THE FOUR

SCHEMES COMPARED

campaign report10

> All of the systems helped people comparebetween products, but the FSA systemled to a significantly higher level ofcorrect comparisons. Ninety seven percent were able to correctly compareusing the FSA scheme compared with86 per cent for the Tesco scheme. Eightyseven per cent were able to correctlycompare using the manufacturers’scheme and 89 per cent using theTesco scheme with traffic lights.

> People from lower socio-economicgroups were more likely to haveproblems identifying which of the twoproducts we showed them washealthier using the Tesco scheme.Seventy five per cent were able tocorrectly identify the healthier choiceusing the Tesco scheme, compared with90 per cent using the FSA multipletraffic light scheme.

> While the actual nutrient information isimportant, the traffic light colour codingwas also key in helping consumerscompare products.

> Most people we interviewed (73 per cent)thought it would be confusing if differentproducts use different types of labels.

EASE OF USE(% who said very/fairly easy)FSA traffic lights 90%Tesco GDA 81%Manufacturers’ GDA 82%Tesco with traffic lights 87%

SPEED OF USE(% who said at a glance/quickly but not at a glance)FSA traffic lights 93%Tesco GDA 78%Manufacturers’ GDA 84%Tesco with traffic lights 83%

> The FSA scheme was quicker to use tocompare products.

24 2825

11

21 2927

18

11 12

5FSA Traffic

LightsTescoGDA

Manufacturers’GDA

Tesco withTraffic Lights

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

ABILITY TO CORRECTLY IDENTIFYTHE LEVELS OF KEY NUTRIENTS (%)

All 4 nutrient levels

3 nutrient levels

2 nutrient levels

16

50

10

34

10

29

10

26

5

1 nutrient level

0 nutrient levels

> The majority of consumers did notunderstand the Tesco colour coding,particularly lower socio-economicgroups, with just 37 per cent of thoseinterviewed able to correctly interpretwhat the colours meant.

> Overall the FSA scheme performed moststrongly in both helping consumers toassess levels of individual nutrients andto compare between products. It wasalso perceived to be the most easy to use.

The FSA scheme enabled people better to assess individual nutrient levels. Thosewho used the FSA scheme in our interviews were significantly more likely tocorrectly identify all of the nutrient levels (ie. the level of fat, sugar or salt aproduct contained). This was also true among people from lower socio-economicgroups, those who said they don’t usually look at labels, people with lesseducation and those with sight problems.

Base 636

(n = 160) (n = 159) (n = 159) (n = 158)

campaign report 11

FACT:

73%of intervieweesthought itwould beconfusing ifdifferentproducers useddifferent typesof schemes

FOOD INDUSTRYRESPONSES

The results were very disappointing.Despite the FSA recommendation thatthe multiple traffic light labellingscheme is most useful for consumers,several manufacturers and someretailers are instead opting for a GDAbased system which is more confusingfor consumers. However, a significantnumber of retailers have committed tousing the traffic light system.

it would be very confusing

”“

you would tend not to

Man, Weston-super-Mare

If you have different labelling

We wrote to the leading food retailers and manufacturers in June 2006 to askthem whether they would be acting on the FSA’s recommendations. Theinformation they gave us is summarised in the following tables.

use it at all

campaign report12

Retailers

Asda

The Co-operative Group

Iceland

Sainsbury’s

Somerfield

Tesco

Marks and Spencer

Morrison’s

Waitrose

Do they intend to use multipletraffic lights?

Yes

Yes

Not at the present time, but willkeep under review

Yes

No

No

Partially

No

Yes

Will they use the FSA’s criteria?

Yes. In addition, Asda will also declare energy onfront of pack and will include the associated % GDAsfor energy, fat, saturates, sugar and salt. It does notcurrently intend to colour-code energy values

Yes

-

Currently do not precisely match FSA criteria. Thedifferences are for salt and sugar. Sainsbury’s applythe colours per 100g and per serving and then basethe label on whichever is the worst. It is in dialoguewith the FSA about how the differences can beresolved

-

-

Will continue to use the positive ‘Eat well’ logo onfoods that meet their criteria on front of pack to sign-post healthier choices. Intend to introduce colour-coded GDAs on the back of pack and are workingwith the FSA on the criteria for this

-

Yes

campaign report 13

Are they using a different scheme to the FSA’s traffic lights?

-

-

Iceland have no plans to introduce a different schemeat the current time

-

Following the Tesco scheme. They will give calorie andweight figures in grams for the five nutrients and the %GDA this equates to per serving. Thepresentation will differ slightly from the Tesco scheme and they will not use the Tesco colour coding

Tesco is using GDA sign-posts to show the amount ofcalories, sugar, fat, saturates and salt per serving of theproduct as well as the percentage of the GDA that thefood provides. It is also applying its own colour codingwhich relates to the nutrients rather than levels ofnutrients

-

Introducing front of pack GDA sign-posting in a singlecolour format

-

Which products is the scheme being applied to and when?

Labelling will start to appear in early Autumn and will belargely completed in the first quarter of 2007. It will beapplied to most product categories, including the ‘SmartPrice’ value range

Priority areas for initial roll out of the scheme will be its corepre-packed processed foods sector consistent with FSApriorities. Have not precluded rolling out the scheme to otherproduct areas and in the meantime will maintain its front ofpack calories, fat and salt indicator

-

Already in use. Aim is to have on all own-brand productsexcept staples and children’s products where they do notthink it would be helpful or appropriate. The Basics range willbe included. It is currently on 1700 products and is expectedto be on at least 4000 by January 2007. From September itwill also be available on-line

Intend to apply to all packs as they are redesigned and have arolling programme to extend it to all labels over the next 2 to 3years. It will complete 40% of all labels this year

Have labelled 3000 products, including ready meals,sandwiches, canned products, biscuits, fruit and vegetables.Approx. 7000 products will be labelled by Spring 2007

Intend to introduce colour-coded GDAs on all its food

Started in June with Morrison’s ‘Free from’, ‘The Best’ and‘Eat Smart’ lines

Initially launched onto Waitrose’s range of around 40sandwiches with the intention of rolling out to categoriesidentified by the FSA. Will be appearing on pizzas and on newranges of ready meals in July. Keen to incorporate onto asmany existing ready meals as packaging stocks permit runningthrough to the end of the year

campaign report14

Manufacturers

Associated British Foods

Cadbury Schweppes

Coca Cola

Danone

Heinz

Kellogg’s

Kerry Foods

Kraft Foods

Masterfoods

Nestlé

Northern Foods

Pepsico

RHM

Unilever

United Biscuits

Yoplait Dairy Crest

Example of company’s brands

Allinson’s, Kingsmill, Ryvita

Cadbury’s, Schweppes, Dr Pepper

Coca Cola, Fanta, Oasis

Actimel, Activia, Danone

Heinz, HP, Amoy

Kellogg’s, Kashi

Wall’s, Matteson’s, Mr Brains

Dairylea, Philadelphia, Terry’s

Mars, Dolmio, Uncle Ben’s

Nestlé, Buitoni, Ski

Fox’s, Goodfellas, Dalepak

Pepsi, Walker’s, Quaker

Sharwood’s, Hovis, Mr Kipling

Knorr, Bertolli, Birds Eye

KP, Jacob’s, McVitie’s

Yoplait, Weightwatchers, St Ivel

Do they intend to use multipletraffic lights?

No response

No

No

No

No immediate plans

No

No response

No

No

No

Where retailers require it forsupermarket own brands. Reviewinguse of traffic lights and otherapproaches as part of a review oflabelling for their branded products

No

No response

No

No response

No – it is observing the debate closelyand will take appropriate steps asnecessary to comply with legislation

Will they usethe FSA’scriteria?

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

campaign report 15

Are they using a different scheme to the FSA’s traffic lights?

No response

Will introduce a front of pack GDA icon directing consumers toits back of pack information built around GDAs. Also workingwith Masterfoods on a ‘Be Treatwise’ consumer educationmessaging campaign

From January 2006, Coca Cola has been including calories perpack and GDAs for calories in a tabular form on packs

Danone intend to use a monochrome version of the Tesco scheme

Heinz are supportive of the use of GDAs and are planning toinclude values as part of the back of pack information panel. Itis also reviewing how best this information might be given onfront of pack

Kellogg’s intend to use a monochrome version of the Tescoscheme

No response

Kraft intend to use a monochrome version of the Tesco scheme

Has launched a ‘Be Treatwise’ initiative with Cadbury TreborBassett in February 2006 concentrating on highlighting GDAs.A logo on the front of pack directs consumers to the informationpanel and GDA information per portion for calories, sugar, fat,saturates and salt on the back

Nestlé will be using a monochrome version of the Tesco scheme

Where retailers require it for supermarket own brands.Reviewing use of traffic lights and other approaches as part of areview of labelling for their branded products

Pepsico will be using a monochrome version of the Tesco scheme

No response

All Unilever brands will carry GDA information for calories,sugar, fat, saturates and salt on the front of their packs

No response

-

Which products is the scheme being applied to and when?

All confectionery lines excluding gifting and gum. Roll out will begin in October 2006

All Coca Cola packaging

Beverage range using the scheme is now available inshops

-

Kellogg’s Cornflakes will soon carry the scheme

No information provided

‘Be Treatwise’ will appear on a range of funsize andmultipacks including Twix, Galaxy, Mars, Milky Way,Snickers and Maltesers from Autumn 2006

Shreddies are now available in shops using the scheme

Final agreed approach will be applied across all ofNorthern Foods’ brands. It hopes to introduce changesin the next 12 months on a rolling basis

Walkers crisps will soon carry the scheme

The first products will be Birds Eye peas and Florafrom August 2006. It expects to have completed thislabelling on all brands by the middle of 2007

-

-

campaign report16 campaign report16

CALLING

FOR ACTION

Which? research has found that a traffic light labelling scheme is the best way tohelp consumers make healthier choices. Front-of-pack nutrition labels must bedriven by what works best for consumers. It is vital that consumers are providedwith the scheme that is most useful and understandable. Retailers andmanufacturers need to accept that they have an important role in helping peopleto improve their diets.

> All food manufacturers and retailersshould adopt the FSA’s multiple trafficlight scheme.

> The FSA must continue to promote itsscheme, raise consumer awareness ofhow it works and explain how to tellwhether foods are high, medium or lowin fat, saturates, sugar and salt.

20 20

For further information please contact:public_affairs@which.co.uk Tel: 0207 770 7214.

More information can also be found on our website (www.which.co.uk/campaigns)

Published by: Which?, 2 Marylebone Road, London NW1 4DF.

Which? campaigns actively for all consumers. With around 700,000 members in the UK,we are the largest consumer organisation in Europe. Entirely independent of governmentand industry, we are funded through sales of our consumer magazines, online products and books.

Which? is the operational name of Consumers' Association - a registered charity No 296072.