Monitoring the health‐related labelling of foods and non‐alcoholic beverages in retail settings

Abstract

SummaryFood labelling on food packaging has the potential to have both positive and negative effects on diets. Monitoring different aspects of food labelling would help to identify priority policy options to help people make healthier food choices. A taxonomy of the elements of health-related food labelling is proposed. A systematic review of studies that assessed the nature and extent of health-related food labelling has been conducted to identify approaches to monitoring food labelling. A step-wise approach has been developed for independently assessing the nature and extent of health-related food labelling in different countries and over time. Procedures for sampling the food supply, and collecting and analysing data are proposed, as well as quantifiable measurement indicators and benchmarks for health-related food labelling.

Nutrient profile of 23 596 packaged supermarket foods and non-alcoholic beverages in Australia and New Zealand

“…The Health Star Rating nutrient profiling system was based on the NPSC in order to ensure consistency between the two systems. Comprehensive monitoring of the food supply in both countries will be important to evaluate uptake of the voluntary Health Star Rating labels by the food industry and assess the impact of both nutrition labels and health claims on food product reformulation and consumption over time (22,23) . Our investigation has several strengths.…”

“…As such, the present study demonstrates a crucial need for regular, Table 2 Number of packaged food products meeting the Nutrient Profiling Scoring Criterion (NPSC) threshold and being eligible to carry health claims. Nutritional composition data were independent monitoring of the nutritional composition and labelling of Australian and New Zealand foods to ensure adherence to the Standard (22,23) . We found positive associations between NPSC score and energy, saturated fat, sugar and sodium contents of packaged foods, in both unadjusted and adjusted models: for every two-unit higher NPSC score (i.e.…”

Nutrition labelling of pre-packaged foods in Belgrade, Serbia: current situation

“…Many consumers claim that nutrition labels influence their selection of foods (17)(18)(19)(20)(21) . The format, content and position of nutrition labels have an important impact on consumers' perception and hence on their choice of product (22) . Existing studies indicate that some types of nutrition labels are more effective than others in helping consumers choose healthier products.…”

“…Marketing-based statements can lead consumers to a decision based on scientifically non-justifiable and tendentious statements. Because of that, and due to the broad use of nutrition labels in shops, fast-food restaurants, restaurants and cantinas, it is necessary to continuously improve both national and international legislation in the field (17,22) . At present, declaration of nutrition information is voluntary in Serbia (25) as well as in the European Union (EU) (26) , unless a food product contains nutrition and/or health claims.…”

Towards comprehensive global monitoring of food environments and policies to reduce diet-related non-communicable diseases

“…INFORMAS offers standardized stepwise approaches to monitor several key aspects of food environments transformable by government and private-sector policies and actions. These include food composition (34) , food labelling (35) , exposure of children to unhealthy food promotion (36) , food provision in different settings (37) , food availability in communities (11) , prices and affordability of healthy v. less healthy diets (38) , and the impacts of trade and investment agreements on food environments (39) . In addition to monitoring key aspects of food environments, INFORMAS has proposed a Government Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) to assess government policies and actions towards good practice (40) .…”