scholarly journals An assessment of nutrition information on front of pack labels and healthiness of foods in the United Kingdom retail market

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. A. Ogundijo ◽  
A. A. Tas ◽  
B. A. Onarinde

Abstract Background Front of pack nutrition labelling is part of United Kingdom government’s programme of activities aiming to tackle diet-related diseases. There are several front of pack labelling formats available and they differ in the information they deliver. This study assessed the frequency of usage of front of pack food labelling systems on food products in the United Kingdom grocery market. It also measured the healthiness of some foods in the online market by categorising them according to their nutrient contents. Methods Five hundred food products in five categories [(1) cereals and cereal products, (2) dairy products, (3) beverages, (4) packaged meats and meat products, and (5) pre-packaged fruits and vegetables] from three main United Kingdom retail websites were investigated. A simple random sampling method was used for product selection according to the categories on the retailers’ websites. The healthiness of foods was also assessed by categorising them into ‘healthier’, ‘moderately healthy’ and ‘least healthy’ based on fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar contents. Results The total number of label types assessed comprises 19.6% of Guideline Daily Amounts or Reference Intakes and 43.8% had a combination of Traffic Light and Reference Intakes (hybrid label). Slightly over a quarter (27.4%) of products included nutritional information in a grid or table, 3.4% of the foods had two of any of the following: Health Logo, Reference Intakes and Traffic Light labels, and 5.8% did not have any Reference Intakes, Traffic Light, Health Logo or Hybrid label. Most of the foods assessed were manufactured in the United Kingdom with only 30.8% imported from 32 countries across four continents. Conclusions Traffic Light and Guideline Daily Amounts were the most used front of pack labelling formats on the assessed food product. A higher number of assessed products belonged to the “moderately healthy” and “healthier” categories than the “least healthy”. The imported foods that were found in the United Kingdom retail market showed that food choices could be made from the diverse food types.

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-11
Author(s):  
E. V. Kryuchenko ◽  
Yu. A. Kuzlyakina ◽  
V. S. Zamula ◽  
I. M. Chernukha

The article discusses the definition and mechanism of IgE‑mediated food allergy, provides an overview of the legal regulation of the production and labeling of allergen-containing food products. In order to prevent the inadvertent appearance of allergens in products during their production, an allergenomics procedure is required — a comprehensive assessment of the allergic potential of a food product: allergenicity of product ingredients, risk analysis, and the procedure for managing allergens in the production.


2015 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 738-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELLEN W. EVANS ◽  
ELIZABETH C. REDMOND

Increased listeriosis incidence among older adults (≥60 years) has been reported internationally, with many cases reported to be sporadic and associated with ready-to-eat (RTE) food products with extended refrigerated shelf life. Given that the home kitchen is recognized as a significant location where foodborne illnesses are acquired, it is important that consumers implement safe food practices to minimize risks. This is crucial for vulnerable consumers, such as older adults. Consumer food safety recommendations in the United Kingdom to reduce the risk of listeriosis at home include (i) following “use-by” dates on unopened prepacked RTE food products, (ii) consuming RTE food products within 2 days of opening, and (iii) ensuring the safe operating temperatures of domestic refrigerators (≤5°C). This study utilized observation, self-reporting, and microbiological analysis to determine actual food storage practices to identify behavioral risk factors. A domestic kitchen survey was conducted in older adult (≥60 years) consumers' domestic kitchens (n = 100) in South Wales, United Kingdom. Forty-one percent of foods in home refrigerators were beyond the use-by date, of which 11% were unopened RTE food products commonly associated with listeriosis. Sixty-six percent of opened RTE foods had been or were intended to be stored beyond the recommended 2 days after opening. Older adults failed to ensure safe refrigeration temperatures, with 50% of central storage and 85% of door storage areas operating at temperatures >5°C. Older refrigerators operated at significantly (P < 0.05) higher temperatures. Given that Listeria monocytogenes was isolated in 2% of kitchens, these findings suggest that storage malpractices may have a greater effect on the potential risk of listeriosis than its presence alone. The study has determined that many older adults fail to adhere to recommendations and subject RTE foods associated with L. monocytogenes to prolonged storage at unsafe temperatures which may render food unsafe for consumption.


Author(s):  
Laura Catalina Timiras

Based on the results of a research undertaken among young people (18-30 years), students of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacau, this paper reveals their preference for local or foreign brands (on the Romanian market) for various categories of food products. It is also highlighted their views on certain essential evaluation criteria for food products (sanogenetic potential, value for money, appearance, taste, availability within commercial network, promotions, image), comparing Romanian and foreign products. The survey shows that the preference for Romanian brands applies particularly to: eggs, bakery products, grain mill, milk and dairy products, fruits and vegetables, meat and meat products (over 50% of the investigated people). A large proportion of young people believes that Romanian products are tastier and healthier than foreign ones, the better image enjoyed by foreign brands being a result of the promotion and packaging of products and not the quality of product; they also believe that Romanian brands are insufficiently promoted nationally, perceiving offer of imported products as being broader than the local one. The research was conducted on a sample of 100 students selected by the group sampling scheme and has an exploratory role for the community of 18-30 years people in Romania, offering, for it, only an indicative perspective on the raised issues.


Author(s):  
Susanne Freidberg

In February 2002, the Financial Times ran a full-page article on the dangers posed by excessive “food miles.” It was written by the editor of Country Life, a magazine dedicated to the preservation of “the British way of life.” Like many critics of food globalization, the author argued that the cheap food policies that originally drove the United Kingdom to import much of its food had hidden costs and posed grave risks both at home and abroad. The article noted that the United Kingdom, despite its experience of mad cow and foot-and- mouth diseases, still imported meat from countries known to be “breeding grounds for killer plagues”—in particular, species-jumping pathogens such as AIDS and the Ebola virus. Despite Britain’s capacity to produce many kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables, supermarkets imported them from countries where, the article said, export farming “deprived” hungry people of land for their own food crops. The airfreight transport of such foods consumed huge quantities of fossil fuel, which drove global warming, which might, the article implied, hasten the onset of geopolitical conflict over increasingly scarce farmland. To avert this dark future, the author called on “concerned shoppers” to use their buying power to “force supermarkets” to purchase and promote more local foods. And, to make perfectly clear who was to blame for burning all these food miles, the accompanying illustration featured two cartoonish characters, one a businesslike carrot wearing the brand of Tesco, the country’s biggest food retailer, and the other a Zambian green bean dressed as an ugly tourist (Aslet 2001). In turn-of-the-21st-century Britain, countryside preservationists were among the many activists who saw the African green bean and “baby veg” as symbolic of food globalization gone wrong, and who called on shoppers to help make things right. The supermarkets that stocked these petite, prepackaged vegetables intended, of course, a very different message—namely that convenient, novel fresh foods belonged in the British way of life, ideally 365 days a year. Yet this marketing strategy had a paradoxical payoff.


Author(s):  
Nermin Bahşi ◽  
Dilek Bostan Budak

In this study, it is aimed to examine which level marketing communicating tools are used in the food industry in Çukurova Region, Turkey. For this purpose, a survey was applied to 92 enterprises which process milk and dairy products, meat and meat products, fruit juice industry in both Adana and Mersin. Also, face to face interview was conducted to gather data from 400 consumers who were determined via simple random sampling, living in Adana province. It was found out that enterprises used the marketing communication tools (sales promotion, advertisement etc.) to increase sales and reduce inventory, even if they are not mostly aware of the concept of marketing communications. They also indicated that they do not practice marketing communication programs at all. The most used tools by the enterprises are personal sales, direct marketing, sales promotions and advertisement. Also, as a result of correlation analysis showed that there is an effect between the enterprises’ use of marketing communication tools and brand and market performance. Consumers stated that the sales promotions are the most effective marketing communication tools on their preferences not only buying food products but also changing the brands. Consumers mostly decide what to buy and which brand while they are in the market. In this case, advertisement, promotion and to the content of the product were the most important factors regarding consumers’ choices. It was found out that consumers’ gender, age, education and income levels were also effective on their preferences on buying different food products. Consumers attitude was different about marketing communication tools; such as young people mostly affected by media and primary and secondary school graduates mostly influenced by additional gifts provided free of charge with the main product.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Carvalho de OLIVEIRA ◽  
Ana Carolina FERNANDES ◽  
Rossana Pacheco da Costa PROENÇA ◽  
Heather HARTWELL ◽  
Vanessa Mello RODRIGUES ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objective This pilot study was aimed at exploring preferences of young adults in two different contexts on restaurant menu labelling formats. Methods Five focus groups were conducted with 36 participants, two focus groups with 11 participants in Brazil and three focus groups with 25 in the United Kingdom. Themes originating from the content analysis of the transcriptions were organised around four possible menu labelling formats: 1) numerical information on calories; 2) numerical information on calories and nutrients; 3) traffic light system plus Guideline Daily Amounts; 4) food information with ingredients list plus highlighted symbols. Results In both countries, participants preferred the ingredients list plus symbols format, considered more comprehensive and useful to make an informed food choice. Organic food and vegetarian symbols were the ones considered most important to appear on restaurant menu labels with ingredients list. However, most participants in Brazil and in the United Kingdom rejected the information restricted to calories and calories plus nutrients formats, saying that these would not influence their own choices. Conclusion This is the first multicultural qualitative study exploring preferences of people living in different countries with different eating habits, but where menu labelling is voluntary. Results evidenced similarities in participants’ likes and dislikes for menu labelling formats in these two different contexts. Discussions showed participants in both countries prefer qualitative information than numerical information, suggesting that ingredients list and symbols provide information that people want to see on the menu.


Author(s):  
Omer Adil Zainal Albayati ◽  
Ravi Kumar ◽  
Gopal Chauhan

Food products of perishable nature are needed to be preserved from spoiling using the precooling technique. Precooling is the process of cooling fruits and vegetables as soon as possible after the harvest and prior to the transportation over long distances to a cold storage warehouse and marketing. Therefore, an experimental investigation has been carried out to study the temperature variation of different food products viz. apple, papaya and grape during the precooling process. Forced air cooling of food products was done by placing the particular food item inside a 4 m long rectangular air duct of 300 mm x 300 mm section. The temperature of cold air was in a range of 4-5 oC and the air velocity varied from 1.6 m/s to 4.1 m/s. The temperature of food product was measured at different radial locations inside the product. The effect of air velocity on the temperature profile of food product was observed and it has been found that the proper choice of cold air velocity can reduce the cooling time of certain food product up to 33 percent, thus, resulting in the saving of energy.


Author(s):  
Ahmed M A Hamad

Dietary fiber considered a main ingredient of food products. The Increased attention of DF in food products is caused by an increased interest in developing health foods, Dietary fiber is consisting polysaccharides and oligosaccharides, and cellulose hemicelluloses, resistant starch, pectin substances, and gums, also the of DF has wide application in food processing because its technological properties. for exampleDF could extend the shelf-life of the product by the water-holding capacity the DF important in the human diet. the food rich in fibre such as cereals, nuts, fruits and vegetables have a positive effect on health since their consumption help in prevent many diseases. Dietary fibre can be used in many functional foods like drinks, beverages, bakery, and meat products. effect of different processing treatments (like cooking, canning, grinding, boiling, frying) change the physico-chemical properties of dietary fibre and improves their functionality. Dietary fibre can be analytical by different methods, mainly by: enzymic gravimetric and enzymic- chemical methods. This paper presents the classification, applications, and functions of dietary fibre in different food products.


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