CFG
08/05
Letter to Shifra Marikar,
Food Standards Agency dated 21 April 2005
Foodaware members welcome the FSA research into signpost labelling
and have been following the results so far with interest.
We have a few comments relevant to the next phase of research. Firstly,
we support the main choices of signpost labelling identified for inclusion
in the quantitative consumer research (simple traffic light; multiple
traffic light and Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) -based concept with
colour coding).
Feedback from our members, concerning whether or not to include a
fourth option, included the following points that you may wish to
consider:
- There is little point in including the second option 'No signposting'
relying on the back of pack nutritional information alone as the
source of information.
- It might be worthwhile to include the first of the two additional
options i.e. ‘Monochrome GDA based concept’ indicating
the amount of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar provided per
serving, together with the GDA for each nutrient; but without
colours or any indication of whether the nutrient content of the
food is high, medium or low.
- However, this may complicate the issue. The main aims are surely
to get the information over in a simple way so that consumer who
have low literacy skills are able to understand it, and those
shopping at high-speed, or with children, are able to make fast
decisions on healthy choices. This is covered in the three options
proposed for the research so a fourth option is not really necessary.
- Another point to consider is that the survey should not be overloaded,
with the risk that interviewees may ‘switch off’ towards
the end and thus affect the results.
I hope you find these comments useful.
Lucy Harris
UK Co-ordinator
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