Food Labels: Tricks of the Trade

Consumers both want and deserve accurate information about the food they buy. It is a core principle of European food law. EU legislation has brought in important rules on food labelling including improved legibility, indication of the substitute ingredient for ‘imitation’ foods, clear indication of ‘formed meat’ or ‘formed fish’, etc.

Our member organisations’ work, however, has highlighted the high prevalence across Europe of food labelling tricks. Taking advantage of grey zones in EU food labelling law, these practices give consumers a perception that they are buying a higher quality or healthier product than the reality. Misleading techniques include: 

• Quality: Attractive descriptions or images (‘traditional’, ‘artisanal’, etc.) which convey an impression of quality that bear little or no relation to the production process of the food/drink;
• Fruit pictures: Pictures of fruit being used to market foods with little or no fruit content and selective promotion of expensive fruits on the front of pack with low actual content.
• Whole grain: Products with hardly any actual whole grain content.

Labels are a key tool for food companies to communicate with consumers, who should be able to expect that information conveyed on the pack is both truthful and accurate.