UK leading the way in nutritional labelling

A new report into nutritional food labelling among European Union states and Turkey, has revealed that the UK is by far the leader in displaying front-of-pack nutritional information.

The European Commission’s European Food Information Council has found that front-of-pack labelling, referred to as the traffic light labelling system in the UK, appeared on 82% of products, compared to the European average of 48%.

In terms of GDA (Guideline Daily Amounts) information, it was found to be on average on 25% of products. But while in Turkey it was only 2%, in the UK it was a high 63%.

Overall, breakfast cereals was the category with the highest penetration of nutrition information, displaying information back of pack on 94% of products and front of pack on 70% of products.

The Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life report encompassed more than 35,000 products from five food and beverage product categories in retailers across the 27 EU member states and Turkey.

The findings come as the Food Standards Agency in the UK work to present the government with recommendations to get all food brands to fall in line with nutritional food labelling.