FSA News Items, 13 February 2006
The Agency has published two surveys that were carried out to investigate whether manufacturers are meeting the Agency's Country of Origin and Clear Labelling guidance, issued in 2002.
More than 750 products were examined and few issues were identified. The research found that many manufacturers provided information that exceeded legal requirements and met the Agency's good practice guidance:
The area where the most improvements could be made was on the font size used on packaging. The text used on many products was found to be too small, resulting in instructions, ingredient lists or date marks that were hard to read.
The Agency will discuss the findings with a range of stakeholders in March 2006 to find out why some parts of the guidance are being more widely followed than others.
The following are the specific FSA notices about the two separate reports:
This survey was conducted as part of an Agency programme that aims to underpin and assist implementation of the Agency's objective of promoting informative labelling to help consumers.
Summary
The Agency issued guidance on Clear Food Labelling in 2002. The Agency's Strategic Plan contains a commitment to monitor the uptake of this advice. A stakeholder meeting was held in July 2004 to help the Agency design a survey to meet this commitment.
The Agency commissioned Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association to carry out the survey. A total of 396 products were sampled and assessment forms devised to measure the uptake of the guidance.
In general the research concluded that products had met most recommendations for best practice. Particularly evident was how closely the guidance was followed on grouping of information (83% of products conformed to the major aspects), on the provision of nutrition information (89% of products, with 80% of these doing so voluntarily), and on clear and unambiguous date marks (96% of products).
The recommendations that were not widely followed included that on font size (87% of products). A large number of products were also found to have given undue emphasis to features such as brand information at the expense of essential information as specified by the Agency's advice (71% of products).
Background
The Food Standards Agency's stated aims for 2001-2006 included a series of initiatives to promote best practice within the food industry. In pursuit of this and as a response to research showing that many consumers found labels hard to use, in early 2001 the Agency established a Clear Labelling Task Force comprising individuals with a wide range of expertise, experience and interest, to advise on what might be done to improve the clarity of food labels.
It made recommendations to tackle each of these, drawing on existing guidelines, particularly those published by the Institute of Grocery Distribution on font size and clarity. The Task Force also recognised that products come in all shapes and sizes and that their labels could not be expected to conform to a single ideal format. Its approach, therefore, was to develop a format which could be used on most products, supplemented by alternatives that were recommended where size and/or shape preclude the use of the ideal.
In October 2002, the Food Standards Agency published guidance on Clear Food Labelling, with the purpose of encouraging brand holders to follow best practice so that consumers could more readily find, read and understand key labelling information.
The Agency's Strategic Plan 2005-2010 undertakes to review this guidance.
Although the existence of this guidance has been widely publicised and made generally available through the Food Standards Agency's website, the extent to which its provisions have been followed had not previously been measured. In July 2004 the Agency held a stakeholder meeting to assist with the planning of the survey.
The FSA Summary report is available on this site at: Summary Report - Clear Labelling. For a copy of the full report on the FSA web site, go to: http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/clearlabassess.pdf
This survey was conducted as part of an Agency programme that aims to underpin and assist implementation of the Agency's objective of promoting informative labelling to help consumers.
Summary
The Agency issued guidance on country of origin labelling in 2002. The FSA's Strategic Plan 2001-06 contains a commitment to monitor the uptake of this advice. A stakeholder meeting was held in July 2004 to help the Agency design a survey to meet this commitment. The FSA decided that the survey would aim:
The Agency commissioned Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association to carry out the survey. A total of 358 products were sampled and assessment forms devised to measure the uptake of the guidance.
Most products volunteered an explicit declaration of origin or provided one in accordance with the law. They were almost always conspicuous and easy to understand even when, as in the great majority of cases, they were given voluntarily.
Such direct statements normally referred to the country where the product has been produced or made, most commonly expressed as the ‘ UK '. References to specific parts of the UK , such as ‘ Northern Ireland ' or ‘ Cornwall ', were far less common.
The most common way that origin was implied, either intentionally or unintentionally, was in writing, but other ways such as flags, pictures, emblems, and references to assurance schemes were frequently seen. Only a small number of cases involved qualifications such as ‘Italian Style'.
The Food Standards Agency's advice on interpretation of the legislation applied to relatively few products whose origin was implied. While most of these followed the advice by giving a distinct declaration of origin, a small minority provided this information in a small font on the back of the pack.
The report concludes that a review of the guidance might consider recommending:
Background
The Food Standards Agency's stated aims for 2001-2006 included a series of initiatives to promote best practice in labelling within the food industry. One of the stated objectives is to assess the uptake of the Agency's guidance on country of origin labelling.
In October 2002, the Food Standards Agency published guidance on country of origin labelling. The purpose of this guidance was to inform industry and enforcement of the Agency's view on country of origin labelling with the aims of identifying legislation that applies to origin labelling, providing non-statutory advice on its interpretation. The guidance also aimed to provide advice on best practice and encourage provision of extra labelling information to that required by law, all with the objective of producing better labelling for consumers.
The Agency decided to assess the extent to which their guidance was followed, and the extent to which it required revision. In July 2004 the Agency held a stakeholder meeting to assist with planning of the survey. Consequently, the Agency decided that the main focus would be whether or not origin was provided on the label. Cases would be noted where there might be confusion for the consumer over origin.
It was recognised that it was easier to provide origin information for less processed products. It was emphasised that the assessment of labels needed to be carried out in an objective manner, but that there would be no further information sought from companies to check the accuracy of the declarations of origin.
The FSA Summary report is available on this site at: Summary Report - Origin Labelling. For a copy of the full report on the FSA web site, go to: http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/coo2006.pdf.