Should governments monopolize nutrition labels?
There's been a lot of chatter in the U.S. and the U.K. in recent weeks about food labels.
In the U.K., European Food Information Council (EUFIC) director general Josephine Wills presented her views to the CIAA on research on consumer response to nutrition information on food labels in Europe. She noted that although nutrition labeling has been a major instrument for consumer health and nutrition education, research shows consumers don't understand the information and likely misuse it in actual consumer purchasing decisions. The UK labeling debate divides consumer activists advocating a stoplight (red-yellow-green) "good food/bad food" label from the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and many food manufacturers who advocate "Guideline Daily Amounts" (GDAs) for four key nutrients (calories, protein, carbohydrates and fats). Including salt is optional. FDF launched a 4m pound campaign last week to promote GDAs. The food industry effort has prompted two government agencies to proclaim a joint "independent" panel to provide an evidence-based resolution of the issues. For their side, perhaps the food companies can also agree on their own "independent" panel.
The same issues separate U.S. food manufacturers and "consumer" groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI has agitated for many years for a "good food/bad food" stoplight label while the GMA/FPA and Food Marketing Institute announced last week its "Take a Peak" promotion campaign for the government's Food Guide Pyramid. The food manufacturers' campaign is the largest of a series of "private" label/education efforts which include commercial endorsement logos sold by the American Heart Association and grocers like Hanaford Brothers with their own "stars" labels. Predictably, CSPI objected to the new GMA/FPA-FMI promotion, having earlier sued FDA to require its preferred red-yellow-green stoplight. CSPI president Michael Jacbson complained to the Washington Post : "What's a consumer to do if one product has the Take a Peak logo and right next to it is a product that gets the American Heart Association logo for being a healthy food?"
Our suggestion: use evidence-based procedures to evaluate both the relationship of the claimed health benefits to quantities of nutrients ingested as well as objective measures of how consumers use food labels. There's a lot more heat than light on these issues at present.
