Our
conclusions
170. Given that FSA research has shown that 78% of
consumers read food labels at least occasionally, clear and informative
labels are obviously a key means of promoting informed consumer
choice. However, labels are only one way in which consumers receive
information about food. In
order to improve consumers' knowledge and understanding of nutrition
and diet, a broader education campaign about these matters is
required, driven forward by both the Government and the food industry,
working in partnership with each other. Consumers are often faced
with a range of contradictory messages about nutrition and diet,
from a wide range of sources. Consequently, if consumers are ever
to trust messages about diet and food, such messages must be presented
in a coherent and authoritative manner. A consistent approach
between industry-run consumer awareness programmes and Government-funded
consumer education must be adopted, with a shared aim of delivering
clear and consistent messages to consumers. The
success of the Government's '5 a day' initiative demonstrates
that Government and industry can work to promote the same simple
message.
171. We are greatly
encouraged by the positive moves made by the Government in this
direction in its recently published food and health action plan.
The plan engages with many of the themes raised in the course
of our inquiry, and supports many of the conclusions we have reached
in this report. Importantly, it also specifies target dates by
which particular actions are to be achieved. We will continue
to monitor the implementation of this plan, and the coherence
of the messages delivered by it, in so far as it relates to the
way in which consumers receive information about food.
Role of the Government
172. We
consider that implementation of our earlier recommendation, that
the Government explicitly task one government department with
lead responsibility for co-ordinating food information policy
across both central and local government, would assist enormously
in achieving this consistent approach between the Government and
the food industry. The industry should be able to rely on a definitive
position on food information policy, issuing from a single source.
The Government needs to provide the industry with a single agenda
with a clear list of priorities that both the Government and industry
can work towards achieving.
Role of the food industry
173. In its report on Obesity, the Health
Committee called on the food industry to take voluntary actions
to address the problem of obesity, such as pricing healthy foods
in an affordable way, stopping forms of product placement that
emphasise unhealthy foods (such as placing confectionery and snacks
at supermarket checkouts) and phasing out 'super-size' portions.[263]
174. The Government appears to have paid some attention
to the Committee's recommendations. The FSA highlighted to us
the "whole area of promotional activity" as one which
the Government particularly needed to look at, especially in relation
to commercial activity aimed at children.[264]
The FSA commented:
We want particularly to encourage supermarkets,
for instance, when they are making 'two for the price of one'
type offers, to take into account the nutritional quality of the
food which they are encouraging people to buy more … as part
of corporate social responsibility.[265]
175. The
food industry clearly has a key role to play in raising consumer
awareness about nutrition and diet and in making healthier choices
both available and attractive. The
figures which we have heard in the course of taking evidence demonstrate
the role to be carried out by the major players, in particular.
More than 90% of consumers now buy their food from the major supermarket
retail chains, McDonald's has over 2.5 million customers a day
in the UK, Whitbread claims to lead both the UK pub restaurant
market and the coffee shop market.[266]
176. Little benefit
to consumers' diet will be gained from improving the provision
of nutrition information if such improvements do not go hand in
hand with corresponding changes in industry practice. We reiterate
the Health Committee's call for the food industry to re-examine
its practices with respect to matters such as pricing, product
placement and portion size.
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