Communicating claims on food packages in a way that multi-cultural consumers can understand and that is compliant with the EU’s regulation on health claims can be challenging because of differences in culture, language and enforcement policies across the continent.
To find out how consumers respond to health claims presented on food packages, what impact the wording, location on pack and use of symbols and pictures, and to help producers cope with regulatory requirements while appealing to consumers, EIT Food researchers launched the Health Claims Unpacked project.
The initiative is funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and includes partners across Europe, including the British Nutrition Foundation. Although the UK is no longer part of the EU, the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims Register adopted all the guidelines of the EU Register of Health Claims as of 1 January 2021.
The disconnect between countries and consumers
The EIT Food team found that typically, European consumers across the board find the authorised wording of claims confusing and sometimes off-putting. Consumers either don’t understand or trust health claims, and so are not able to use them to make informed personal nutrition choices.
One reason for this is that regulations focus more on the ‘truth value’ of the claims rather than on whether or not consumers can easily understand them. Manufacturers and marketers may also lack info about how people interpret and respond to different linguistic and graphic elements on packages, especially when it comes to scientific information. The situation is even more complex when you consider the fact that, across the EU, health claims must be expressed in many different languages and meet the needs of consumers in many different food cultures.
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