Description

Food and nutrition education is globally recognized as the most efficient tool for reducing the risks of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). For decades, different nutrition labelling formats found on the back of food packages have been used as educational tools to provide information on amounts of nutrients for preventing both under- and over-nutrition. However, these traditional panels have proven to be ineffective for consumer education due to their complexity. Other systems, so-called ‘Simplified Nutrition Labelling’, which are normally shown on the front of a food package, were then introduced as ‘Front-of-Pack, FOP’ labelling. These labelling panels normally contain only the nutrients that relate to NCDs and that should be limited for consumption. At least four types of FOP nutrition labelling panels exist, namely, nutrient specific, summary indicator, food group information and hybrids. These panels using different patterns provide consumers with three types of information: non-evaluative, evaluative or interpretative and conclusive. In this chapter, the advantages and disadvantages of different types of nutrition labelling are discussed, especially their roles in reducing the risk of obesity-related NCDs in a population.

Chapter