How can the fine food sector boost consumer trust?

The inclusion of labelling claims on packaging is a core purchasing factor for consumers when considering whether to purchase or abandon a food or beverage product. In today’s retail environment, shoppers expect to easily gain access to the nutritional or health benefits of speciality food products.

Specialist retailers know that for producers launching or reformulating food and beverage products, they have to appeal to these changing consumer dynamics. To do so, manufacturers need to plough their innovation energy and investment efforts into more than just considerations on formulation or ingredient options alone.

“Selecting the right path on the product labelling, including claims, can lead to market success,” reveals David Pineda Ereño, advisor on strategy, policy and regulation at DPE International Consulting. In 2020, there are a number of core consumer demands impacting labelling claims in Europe. Looking after our health is a key driver in making changes to our diets and our product preferences. “Immunity products that speak to consumers’ primary desire to maintain their optimum health” are popular, Pineda Ereño adds. However, it is a “very competitive field”. To appeal to consumers in the specialist retail sector, manufacturers must develop the appropriate claim to appeal to different consumer demographics. Digestive health, the connection between the gut and the brain is increasingly growing in demand and influencing packaging claims. And subsequently, our decision to buy — or not. Consumer lifestyles heavily influence the labelling claims manufacturers display on their new product launches. Both the number and type of formulations have grown in tandem to reflect consumer calls for food and beverage products that suit their daily routines, activities and needs.

There are a number of key terms that consumers are specifically looking for — such as natural, organic, clean and free-from — that highlight the beneficial impact the product has on consumers’ health, lifestyle and sustainability. Healthy and ethical ingredients dominate the consumer decisionmaking process throughout Europe, market intelligence provider, Mintel, found in its Ethical Food Consumer UK April 2019 report. In the UK, 35% of consumers would buy meals with no additives or preservatives claims, compared to 33% who would buy them without. Of those asked, a quarter of consumers in the UK also stated that they buy ethical food and drink to avoid consuming unwanted ingredients or substances. The European Regulation on the use of nutrition and health claims has been harmonised in the European Union since 2006. Positive lists with permitted nutrition and health claims have been produced.
However, the “development of the list of permitted health claims is still ongoing”, Pineda Ereño notes. As a result, many health claims have been evaluated. Some of these labelling claims have been approved and others have not. Despite the lack of complete approval across labelling claims in the nutrition and health space, those health claims that have not been evaluated yet are allowed to be used in the meantime. Another main aspect of the 2006 Regulation, pending implementation, is the creation of foods and beverage profiles that specify their critical nutrients. The current European Commission administration is expected to release a proposal for nutrient profiles this year.

Commenting on the impact this would have on the use of labelling claims, Pineda Ereño informs: “If adopted, this would mean that food and beverages with amounts above the fixed nutrient profiles of key nutrients such as sugar, sodium or fat would be unable to use any nutrition and health claims.” The landscape would become stricter in order to build trust, transparency and credibility with consumers. Creating, confirming and setting nutrient profiles is a global trend. Many countries around the world have established their own nutrient profiles or are discussing it, particularly in the context of labelling and/or advertising applications. The Codex Alimentarius, an intergovernmental organisation that adopts international standards for foods and beverages, is also exploring the development of general principles to guide national authorities for setting nutrient profiles for labelling applications.

The widespread focus on supporting and clarifying labelling claims in nutrition strives to provide specialist retailers throughout Europe with an unambiguous understanding of what food and beverage product formulations contain and their beneficial consumption attributes.