The Prevalence and Compliance of Health Claims Used in the Labelling and Information for Prepacked Foods within Great Britain

Emma Coates; Kristina Pentieva; Hans Verhagen

doi:10.3390/foods13040539

The Prevalence and Compliance of Health Claims Used in the Labelling and Information for Prepacked Foods within Great Britain

Emma Coates
, Kristina Pentieva
, Hans Verhagen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

66 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In the EU and Great Britain (GB), all health claims (HCs) on food must be authorised before use and should comply with Regulation 1924/2006. In GB, all HCs, authorised or not, are listed in the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims Register. This study reviews the prevalence and compliance of HCs on prepacked foods sold within three GB supermarkets and via their grocery shopping websites. In June 2023, food labels and online product information of 440 products were evaluated across three food categories—dairy and dairy alternatives; fruit juices, fruit juice drinks and fruit smoothies; and teas and infusions. In store, 26.3% of products carried an HC and 28.3% online. The prevalence of HCs was higher when compared with data from 2016. Overall compliance was high, in store (94.3%) and online (90.0%), with no statistically significant difference in overall HC compliance between in store and online products (p = 0.724). The HC violations observed in the present study were due to non-compliant wording of HCs or use of non-authorised HCs. This study demonstrates changes in the HC landscape and the need for continued monitoring of the prevalence and compliance of HCs as consumer trends alter.

Original language	English
Article number	539
Pages (from-to)	1-18
Number of pages	18
Journal	Foods
Volume	13
Issue number	4
Early online date	9 Feb 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13040539
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 9 Feb 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Funding

This research received no external funding. The work was conducted as part of the M.Sc. in Food Regulatory Affairs course at Ulster University and University College Dublin.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

Plant Science
Health Professions (miscellaneous)
Health (social science)
Microbiology
Food Science
foods
compliance
Regulation 1924/2006
health claims

Access to Document

10.3390/foods13040539

foods-13-00539-v2Final published version, 1.14 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "The Prevalence and Compliance of Health Claims Used in the Labelling and Information for Prepacked Foods within Great Britain",

abstract = "In the EU and Great Britain (GB), all health claims (HCs) on food must be authorised before use and should comply with Regulation 1924/2006. In GB, all HCs, authorised or not, are listed in the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims Register. This study reviews the prevalence and compliance of HCs on prepacked foods sold within three GB supermarkets and via their grocery shopping websites. In June 2023, food labels and online product information of 440 products were evaluated across three food categories—dairy and dairy alternatives; fruit juices, fruit juice drinks and fruit smoothies; and teas and infusions. In store, 26.3\% of products carried an HC and 28.3\% online. The prevalence of HCs was higher when compared with data from 2016. Overall compliance was high, in store (94.3\%) and online (90.0\%), with no statistically significant difference in overall HC compliance between in store and online products (p = 0.724). The HC violations observed in the present study were due to non-compliant wording of HCs or use of non-authorised HCs. This study demonstrates changes in the HC landscape and the need for continued monitoring of the prevalence and compliance of HCs as consumer trends alter.",

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The Prevalence and Compliance of Health Claims Used in the Labelling and Information for Prepacked Foods within Great Britain

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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Cite this