Co-op to feature food content labelling
Consumer advice on fat, salt and calorie count
The Co-op is to give customers details of the fat and salt content of leading food brands in a trial to gauge demand for increased information on nutritional values.
The supermarket chain will use shelf cards which will show whether the salt and fat content of comparable products is high, medium or low, enabling consumers to easily choose between them on the basis of their nutritional value.
The Co-op already provides the information on its own brands and said it aims to demystify the nutritional values of other products. The trial is taking place in 10 stores in London and Glasgow.
The products will be a mix of major food brands, including Loyd Grossman Green Thai Curry Sauce, Kelloggs Cornflakes, and Nestle Shreddies, as well as Co-op own lable products.
David Croft, head of Co-op brands, said: “Many products do not carry full nutritional information and the information that they do give is often of little value to consumers without some further explanation like high, medium and low
“By expanding our current approach, we want to see whether customers feel more confident about nutrition and are encouraged to make healthier choices. Customer exit polls will test reaction and the findings will be presented to the Food Standards Agency.
“According to research for our Shopping With Attitude report launched earlier this year, 96 per cent of people said that food labels should give full information. We hope that this trial will provide useful information to contribute to the debate on diet and health.”
The Co-op’s move follows the publication earlier this year of the Commons Health Select Committee report on obesity, which recommended legislation to promote a simpler food labelling system. It said current labelling was often complex and difficult to understand, but praised the Co-op’s food labelling, featuring high, medium and low, as “exemplary in comparison with what most supermarkets managed”.
Last week also saw the launch of a public health advertising campaign from the Food Standards Agency, encouraging consumers to cut down on salt.
