Incorporating nutritional data on printed labels for food products could improve people's diets, experts have suggested.
According to the Food Labelling to Advance Better Education for Life (FLABEL) consortium, nutrition labels are a "potentially useful tool" for helping consumers to eat more healthily.
However, the organisation believes their possible benefits are being undermined by a lack of motivation among the general public to make use of them.
Professor Klaus Gruner, scientific advisor for FLABEL, believes this could change if consumers set themselves a target they would like to achieve if they adopt a healthier diet.
The organisation has also suggested that nutritional information be added to the front of food packaging "in a consistent way" in order to get people to pay more attention.
FLABEL said this could be complemented by a special health logo that highlights the fact a product offers nutritional benefits.
The organisation added that scientific details on how nutritional labels apply in actual shopping scenarios remain "limited".
Denny Bros Ltd, 01 February 2012
