The British are making more health conscious choices with the traffic light
16.02.2010
British supermarkets have been selling products with traffic light labels since March 2006. Experience shows: Consumers understand traffic light labels – and they understand them quickly and correctly. Shoppers have been using these labels, above all, for choosing between similar products.
Since traffic light labelling was introduced in the UK, British consumers have been making different choices. This change has been shown by preliminary sales figures from the retail chain Sainsbury's. British consumers are using traffic light labels to choose between different products in a certain product category. They are not, however, avoiding entire product groups, like chocolate or olive oil, just because these products have red lights.
In other words practical experience with traffic light labels has shown that they neither cause discrimination against certain products nor do they “dumb down” consumers, as the food industry likes to claim. Customers understand that a red light does not mean, “Stop, don’t buy this.” They interpret it correctly as the symbol for a high level of a specific nutrient that should not be consumed in excessive quantities. Moreover, these labels have even had an effect on the quality of the products being offered: Manufacturers are changing their product formulations in order to avoid red lights. Numerical and percentage figures cause confusionPrior to its introduction of traffic light labels the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) undertook various studies to test which labelling system is best understood by consumers. In these studies 2,600 British shoppers were asked to compare various labelling systems, including the GDA system with purely numerical figures as proposed by the food industry. The findings: 90 percent of respondents interpreted the traffic light label correctly. They also were able to understand information more quickly when it was colour-coded. In all age groups the traffic light label was understood by the largest percentage of respondents. Numerical and percentage figures, on the other hand, were shown to cause confusion. Percentage figures were found to be especially prone to misinterpretation. 10,000 products with traffic light labelsAccording to the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) almost 10,000 products in the UK were using traffic light labels as of 1 January 2008. Traffic light labelling, although still voluntary in the UK, is being used by eight retail chains, including Sainsbury's, which together account for a market share of 40 percent. Traffic light labels have also been adopted voluntarily by 16 food manufacturers and four service providers. The majority of medical institutions, health organisations and consumer groups in the UK support traffic light labelling. (Source: www.food.gov.uk, FSA in an email dated 8 February 2008)
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