title: Prevalence of Nutrition and Health-Related Claims on Pre-Packaged Foods: A Five-Country Study in Europe.
abstract: This study is part of the research undertaken in the EU funded project CLYMBOL ("Role of health-related CLaims and sYMBOLs in consumer behaviour"). The first phase of this project consisted of mapping the prevalence of symbolic and non-symbolic nutrition and health-related claims (NHC) on foods and non-alcoholic beverages in five European countries. Pre-packaged foods and drinks were sampled based on a standardized sampling protocol, using store lists or a store floor plan. Data collection took place across five countries, in three types of stores. A total of 2034 foods and drinks were sampled and packaging information was analyzed. At least one claim was identified for 26% (95% CI (24.0%-27.9%)) of all foods and drinks sampled. Six percent of these claims were symbolic. The majority of the claims were nutrition claims (64%), followed by health claims (29%) and health-related ingredient claims (6%). The most common health claims were nutrient and other function claims (47% of all claims), followed by disease risk reduction claims (5%). Eight percent of the health claims were children's development and health claims but these were only observed on less than 1% (0.4%-1.1%) of the foods. The category of foods for specific dietary use had the highest proportion of NHC (70% of foods carried a claim). The prevalence of symbolic and non-symbolic NHC varies across European countries and between different food categories. This study provides baseline data for policy makers and the food industry to monitor and evaluate the use of claims on food packaging.
authors.affiliation: European Food Information Council, rue Paul-Emile Janson 6, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. sophie.hieke@eufic.org.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hieke
authors.affiliation: European Food Information Council, rue Paul-Emile Janson 6, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. nera.kuljanic@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Nera
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kuljanic
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Institute, Tržaška cesta 40, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. igor.pravst@nutris.org.|Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Jamnikarjeva 101, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. igor.pravst@nutris.org.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pravst
authors.affiliation: Nutrition Institute, Tržaška cesta 40, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. krista.miklavec@nutris.org.
authors.forename: Krista
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miklavec
authors.affiliation: British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK. asha.kaur@dph.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Asha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.affiliation: Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK. kerry.brown@surrey.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Kerry A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK. m.egan@surrey.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Bernadette M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Egan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Consumer and Behavioural Research, Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany. k.pfeifer1@gmx.net.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pfeifer
authors.affiliation: Agrifood Research and Technology Centre of Aragon, 50059 Zaragoza, Spain. agracia@aragon.es.
authors.forename: Azucena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gracia
authors.affiliation: British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK. mike.rayner@dph.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rayner
mesh_terms: D001628:Beverages; D032882:Comprehension; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005060:Europe; D057140:Fast Foods; D005515:Food Labeling / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D058870:Food, Organic; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007881:Legislation, Food; D009753:Nutritive Value
keywords: food supply; health claims; health symbols; monitoring; nutrition claims