US health experts challenge industry's front-of-package nutrition labelling

In their "Perspective" piece, the authors note that even though the industry's action may seem positive at first glance by creating a single system with objective nutrition information, the approach is contrary to what research shows would be helpful to consumers. They say it also pre-emptively undermines the deliberations of the Food and Drug Administration and the Institute of Medicine, which are scheduled to release a report on food labelling in the fall.

The industry approach questioned

The food industry announced its own nutrition labelling approach in January 2011. Brownell and Koplan argue that this action may have been taken to "lock in a system that would change food choices as little as possible and pre-empt the imposition of an alternative system that would be based on the available and relevant science."

Several front-of-pack labelling systems have already been scientifically developed, tested, and found helpful to consumers, including the "traffic-light" system developed in Britain in which red, green, and yellow symbols are used to show which foods might be eaten freely, in moderation, or sparingly. The traffic-light system is based on a nutrient profiling method that is used to determine which foods can be marketed to children in Britain and will be used in Australia as the basis for allowing health claims on food packages.

Too complex

The authors assert that compared with the easy-to-understand traffic-light approach, the industry's Nutrition Keys system is too complex, with too many symbols, and may create confusion for consumers. The average shopper only examines a package for a few seconds before making a decision, hence it is concerning that the industry system presents numbers that many consumers may not understand, the % Daily Value. Further confusion may arise because a high score is considered good for some nutrients like fibre and bad for others such as saturated fat.

"Industry leaders who profess to be responsible partners in preventing and controlling the obesity epidemic have an opportunity now to reject this non-collaborative, premature approach and show good faith by awaiting the IOM report and endorsing the best evidence-based approach to front-of-package labelling," say the authors. Otherwise, Brownell and Koplan say, "industry may have proven itself untrustworthy again and raised the risk of what it wishes to avoid - government's exercising of its authority to mandate some types of labelling and to restrict others."

Source: Yale