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Introduction

According to the WHO, an unacceptably large number of our population is overweight and obese. A total of more than 650 million people are obese currently. The foremost reason for this is considered intake of excessive unhealthy food and lack of exercise.

It has been mandatory for food manufacturers to label their foods with all the details of the food they are supplying to the public. There are very strict guidelines that need to be followed like mentioning the nutritional value of the food and the ingredients use for the production of the foods.

With the passage of time, the rules and regulations have changed. As the number of preventable deaths due to consumption of unhealthy food increases every day, the labelling of edible foods has also changed. The new way of Front of pack labelling was introduced in the late 80’s and has since been adopted by many countries all over the world.

Nutrition Labelling

The WHO has provided enough data to conclusively say that the intake of food and change in lifestyles has caused massive deaths due to obesity and overweight adults and children.

Taking a look at the below image we can see that the world is turning obese every day and the reason is excessive intake of food, unhealthy food and lack of exercise being the main causes.

With the preventable deaths increasing multi folds due to excessive eating and the public turning more aware of the food they consume, the amount of information on nutritional intake and ingredients has gone up on every food product purchased. Let’s take an e.g. of a cereal box.

This is the way the Back-Of-Pack has details given on the nutritional values and ingredients. Unfortunately, due to the lack of knowledge of the common people, most of such labels do not send a clear picture to the public. When looking at a label, the common man will not understand the importance or intensity of the information given. Thus, making the whole point of putting up nutritional values.

Front-Of-Pack (FOP) labelling:

The FOP is basically the symbolic and understandable version of the nutritional value that manufacturing companies put on the back of the food pack.

Some of the reasons that FOP was put into place are:

• Lack of nutritional knowledge
• Lack of interpretational skills to compare information provided with respect to the whole diet
• Lack of time to read the labels and nutrient facts and values

To overcome these obstacles, the use of FOP was made. This method helps the customer receive the information in an easier and more comprehensible way so as to make better food choices.

The FOP started with the heart symbol in America to indicate the food was safe for the heart. It then started with the symbol of a keyhole to indicate healthier choices in food options. After 2004, the food manufacturers started coming up with their own symbols to show their food was a healthier alternative to their counterparts or to show they have / have not a specific ingredient in their food products.

The 4 commonly used methods of FOP are as follows:

1. Single healthy eating symbols: The Swedish keyhole is the symbol of a green keyhole, the heart with a tick is also used to symbolize the food is not bad for the heart. The smart choices logo is from Netherlands and is widely used all over the world. Let’s take a look at the symbols below.

2. Traffic light labelling: The traffic light labelling is a method used to show the level of key nutrients in the color of amber, red and green. The foods in the green category are the healthiest choice, followed by the amber (choose sparingly) and then the red (limited consumption).

3. Guideline daily amounts (GDA) : The GDA system was developed in the UK and was voluntarily adopted all over the world. This system tell the energy and nutrients that are present in one serving of the food being packaged. This helps the customer to understand how much of energy and nutrients he will be consuming each time he consumes a specific amount of the food. The ‘per serving’ is calculated as what a healthy adult woman will consume. This is the standard that is considered the most appropriate that applies to most of the population.

Limitations with FOP

Most of Europe, United States and Asia make use of some form of FOP. The regulations in Africa still needs to improve to help in consumer knowledge growth.

With the help of market surveys, it has been proven that a consumer can understand the FOP symbolic system better that the back of pack system. There happens to be no specific guidelines that govern the FOP in the food industry.

It has been seen that even though the food manufacturer may put the symbols of choices and good heart, he may avoid mentioning the amount of sugar intake that is present in each serving.

Another limitation with the FOP is that each company comes up with a symbol that they seem fit and suits their brand. There is no commonality or any standardization over the products.

Conclusion

As of today, most of the developed world and Asia make use of FOP. Apart from the nutrition labels at the back of pack, the standardization of FOP is still underway. Thailand has already made it mandatory to have FOP on their food products. The countries of USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are soon to follow the lead.

The use of FOP must be made mandatory across food products and be regulated. This will help customers to not only compare products across food groups but also guide them on their nutrition intake.

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