Informed food choices for healthier consumers

Food is an essential part of life. Our eating habits are affected by many different aspects of our daily lives beyond meeting simple nutritional needs. The way people eat is influenced by many factors, some out of their control such as agriculture, trade and food prices, and others directly related to their personal behaviours, cultural habits and/or social life.

If there is no single EU diet there is one common denominator in the EU: people tend to consume too much added sugar, salt and saturated fat while consumption of fruit and vegetables remains low. 

We consider the following actions necessary to make sure our food environment is one which encourages healthy decisions:

• Clear front-of-pack nutrition labelling;
• Health claims that consumers can trust;
• Improving labelling of food eaten outside home;
• Reformulation to reduce fat, sugar and salt levels;
• Responsible food marketing;
• A more coordinated EU policy agenda.