The 5-colour nutritional labelling system is the most effective for consumers

2015-08-31

(Press-News.org) While the French High Council for Public Health (HCSP) made public on Monday, 24 August 2015, a positive opinion regarding the relevance of the 5-colour code for the public, a team of researchers (Inserm/INRA/Paris 13 University) directed by Serge Hercberg, on publication of their article in the journal Nutrients, demonstrated that the 5-colour nutrition label (5-CNL) is the most effective nutritional information system for allowing consumers to recognise and compare the nutritional quality of foods, including "at-risk" populations (older subjects, those with a lower educational level, lower income, lower nutritional knowledge, and overweight or obese individuals).

Article 5 of the Health Act, introduced by Marisol Touraine, Minister of Health, and passed by the French Parliament, states, "...to make it easier to inform consumers and to help the consumer make informed choices, that the mandatory nutrition declaration may be accompanied by a presentation or complementary expression using graphics or symbols on the front of packaging."

Several systems have been proposed at national and international level. In France, many learned societies support the establishment of the 5-CNL 5-colour nutritional labelling system (green/yellow/orange/fuchsia pink/red). The latter is based on the calculation of a nutritional quality score (nutrient profiling system, Food Standards Agency, FSA), which takes several elements present on the nutrition label into account (calories, simple sugars, saturated fatty acids, sodium, fibre, protein and percentage of fruits and vegetables per 100 g of product), to arrive at a unique indicator of the nutritional quality of the food.

Several studies have already contributed to the validation of the FSA score, by showing that the nutritional quality of foods consumed evaluated by the FSA score is linked to the overall quality of the diet and nutritional status of individuals, and in a prospective manner to the risk of disease. These scientific studies underscore the interest of putting the 5-colour nutrition label (5-CNL), based on FSA score, on the front of food packaging in order to better guide consumers in their food choices. This system is the subject of considerable controversy, fuelled among others by the various industrial stakeholders, who cast doubt on its value.

The study published today by EREN under the direction of Pauline Ducrot (PhD student in Nutrition) and Sandrine Péneau (Lecturer in Nutrition, Paris 13 University) in the journal Nutrients compares the effect of different nutrition labels on the front of packs of various foods on the ability of consumers to rank foods appropriately. The study was carried out on a sample of 14,230 adults participating in the NutriNet-Santé study. The impact of 4 simplified nutritional labelling systems was tested: the colour-based 5-CNL system; the Green Tick, similar to that used in some Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands; the Multiple Traffic Light system used in Great Britain, and the Guideline Daily Amounts (or Reference Intakes) system already used in France by some industrial companies. A logo-free situation was also used as a reference. With the help of a Web-based questionnaire specifically developed for this study, participants in the study were asked to rank, on a relative basis ("less good," "moderate," "the best" or "I don't know") the nutritional quality of different series of 3 foods belonging to the same category.

Five categories of foods were tested: frozen fish products, pizzas, dairy products, breakfast mueslis and appetisers.

Each participant had to randomly test a combination of food products and nutrition labels from the 5 categories. For this, 25 different versions of the questionnaire were used. A statistical design (Latin Square) made it possible to ensure an equal number of participants for each labelling/product category combination.

The results of this specific study on the comprehension of nutritional logos show that:

Generally speaking, individuals "at risk" of having a nutritionally poorer quality diet (older subjects, participants with a lower educational level, lower income, lower nutritional knowledge, and overweight or obese individuals) had greater difficulty in ranking food products according to their nutritional quality. The various nutrition labels significantly increased the ability of individuals, including those at risk, to rank 3 foods in order of their nutritional quality, compared with a logo-free setting. The nutrition labels had more impact than individual characteristics (education level, income, etc.) on increasing the ability of the individuals to correctly rank the foods by nutritional quality. The chance of correctly ranking the products was multiplied up to 12-fold with a logo, whereas individual characteristics enabled an increase in the chance by a factor of only 1.17. Of the nutrition labels tested, the 5-colour nutritional labelling system (5-CNL) was the most effective in terms of comprehension. It performed better than the Traffic Light, Reference Intakes, or Green Tick labelling systems. The 5-CNL system performed better, including among individuals with a relatively "unfavourable" diet in terms of nutrition and health. In particular, the presence of 5-CNL strongly increased (over twenty-fold compared to the logo-free situation) the ability of individuals with no knowledge of nutrition to correctly rank the products compared with a logo-free situation.

The results of this study emphasise the interest of nutrition labels for helping consumers, particularly those at risk of making food choices that are relatively "unfavourable" to their health, to identify the products most conducive to a balanced diet. The 5-colour logo (5-CNL) system turns out to be the best understood among individuals as a whole, and may therefore make it possible to inform consumers effectively and equitably on the nutritional quality of products, and thereby incorporate this information into determinants of their food choices.

INFORMATION:

SOURCES

Objective Understanding of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labels among Nutritionally At-Risk Individuals

Pauline Ducrot 1,*, Caroline Méjean 1, Chantal Julia 1,2, Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot 1, Mathilde Touvier 1, Léopold K. Fezeu 1, Serge Hercberg 1,2 and Sandrine Péneau 1

Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team, Centre of Research in Epidemiology and Statistics, Paris 13 University, Inserm (U1153), French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) (U1125), CNAM, COMUE Sorbonne Paris Cité, Bobigny F-93017, France; E-Mails: c.mejean@eren.smbh.univ-paris13.fr (C.M.); c.julia@eren.smbh.univ-paris13.fr (C.J.); e.kesse@eren.smbh.univ-paris13.fr (E.K.-G.); m.touvier@eren.smbh.univ-paris13.fr (M.T.); l.fezeu@eren.smbh.univ-paris13.fr (L.K.F.); s.hercberg@eren.smbh.univ-paris13.fr (S.H.); s.peneau@eren.smbh.univ-paris13.fr (S.P.)

Department of Public Health, Avicenne Hospital, Bobigny Cedex F-93017, France

Nutrients, 25 August 2015

INVESTIGATOR CONTACT

Serge Hercberg Director, Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN) UMR U1153 Inserm/U1125 INRA/CNAM/Paris 13 University Centre of Research in Epidemiology and Statistics, Sorbonne-Paris-Cité Tel.: +33 (0)1 48 38 89 33 /32 hercberg@uren.smbh.univ-paris13.fr

PRESS CONTACT

presse@inserm.fr

Access the Inserm press room: presse-inserm.fr/en/

The press release in English :http://presse-inserm.fr/en/the-5-colour-nutritional-labelling-system-is-the-most-effective-for-consumers/20260/

In French : http://presse-inserm.fr/le-systeme-dinformation-nutritionnelle-a-5-couleurs-est-le-plus-efficace-pour-les-consommateurs/20260/

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Preventive medicine experts speak out about reducing firearm violence

2015-08-31

Amsterdam, NL, August 31, 2015 -- Every week in the U.S. an average of 645 people lose their lives to firearm violence and 1,565 more are treated in an emergency department for a firearm-related injury. Most of these events do not make headlines, but they account for about 7% of the premature deaths before age 65 in the U.S. In a special issue of Preventive Medicine, preventive medicine and health policy experts address a wide range of critical topics related to firearm violence, from the interaction of alcohol abuse with gun violence, effects of changes to gun laws in ...

Alzheimer's disease -- Overlooked for 30 years: A new kid on the block

2015-08-31

Alzheimer's disease is associated with the appearance of characteristic neurotoxic protein aggregates in various regions in the brain. Chemical analysis of these insoluble deposits reveals that they are made up of a family of short protein fragments, referred to as beta-amyloid peptides, which are derived from a precursor protein called APP by the sequential action of two enzymes. An international team of researchers led by Christian Haass (Professor of Metabolic Biochemistry at LMU and Speaker for the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Munich) and Dr. Michael ...

Mayo researchers examine risk factors/patient outcomes associated with colorectal cancer

2015-08-31

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- About 20 percent of colorectal cancer patients have cancers that have spread (metastasized) beyond the colon at the time of their diagnosis. The liver is the most common site for these metastases. The approach to treating primary tumors within the colon and metastatic tumors in the liver continues to evolve; however, it typically involves chemotherapy plus surgical removal (resection) of both types of tumors. However, experts continue to debate whether surgical resection of primary tumors and metastatic tumors should be performed at the same time (synchronously) ...

As wind-turbine farms expand, research shows they could offer diminishing returns

2015-08-31

LAWRENCE -- Renewable wind energy is experiencing a boom, with more wind turbines popping up across landscapes in the U.S. and abroad. Indeed, wind energy accounted for 3.3 percent of electricity generation in the United States in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Globally, that number was 2.9 percent for the same year. But as wind turbines proliferate, researchers at the University of Kansas are looking at how these forests of turbines affect the wind itself. What happens to the wind when a larger number of wind turbines removes more and ...

NASA sees a weakening Hurricane Ignacio moving parallel to Hawaiian Islands

2015-08-31

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Ignacio and viewed the storm in infrared light, providing valuable temperature data. Aqua saw a weaker Ignacio moving parallel to the Hawaiian Islands. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard Aqua gathers infrared data that shows temperatures. That AIRS data was made into a false-colored infrared image from August 30 at 22:47 UTC (6:47 p.m. EDT) and showed high, cold, strong thunderstorms surrounded the center of Hurricane Ignacio. AIRS imagery also showed a thick band of thunderstorms spiraling into the ...

Northwestern researchers find predictor of child vocabulary

2015-08-31

Researchers link babies' performance on cognitive tasks to later learning progress Study underscores importance of talking to your baby well before they can talk back Findings may eventually contribute to reducing "vocabulary gap" EVANSTON, Ill. --- At 12 months old, your infant's ability to group objects according to the names associated with them -- as opposed to their appearance alone -- offers a glimpse into how his or her vocabulary will develop by the time they are 18 months, Northwestern University researchers have found. The research, by Brock Ferguson, ...

A technique designed to predict how much energy waves will be bringing

2015-08-31

This news release is available in Spanish. Marine energy has a great future potential according to the experts, but there is still a long way to go before it can be used on a large scale. Despite the problem of intermittency, wave energy has an advantage over wind energy, for example: it is easier to predict optimum swell than some suitable gusts of wind. That is why knowing how much energy the waves will be bringing within a few hours is as important as having available efficient prototypes to make use of wave power. If this information is known, the energy produced ...

Television viewing linked to higher injury risk in hostile people

2015-08-31

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 31, 2015 -- People with hostile personality traits who watch more television than their peers may be at a greater risk for injury, potentially because they are more susceptible to the influence of television on violence and risk-taking behaviors, a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health analysis discovered. The research, published online in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, suggests that a reduction in television viewing and content rating systems geared not just to age, but also personality traits, ...

Lizards can stomach island living

2015-08-31

Life on an island isn't always easy. To make the most of the little there is to eat on many Greek islands, the digestive system of Balkan green lizards has evolved considerably compared to family members on the mainland. Surprisingly, many of these insect-eating lizards even have special valves that help to digest plants. These are some of the findings¹ from a study led by Konstantinos Sagonas of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, published in Springer's journal The Science of Nature². Reptiles can adjust their digestive system and ...

Watching more TV as a young adult predicts obesity

2015-08-31

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 31, 2015 -- The more hours young adults spend watching television each day, the greater the likelihood that they'll have a higher body mass index and bigger waist circumference, a 15-year analysis by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health revealed. The association did not hold in later years, indicating that young adulthood is an important time to intervene and promote less television viewing, according to the research published online in the journal SAGE Open. "We were quite surprised to find that television viewing was associated ...

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

The 5-colour nutritional labelling system is the most effective for consumers

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: