Sainsbury’s labeling system clearest for consumers, study finds

28 Mar 2018 --- According to a recent study by an online label company, Sainsbury’s supermarket has the clearest labels on their food. 39 percent of people find their labels the easiest to understand, closely followed by Asda. However, Morrisons and Tesco lag behind with consumers finding them the most confusing.

As levels of obesity rise in the UK and people find themselves confused by portion size and the GDA system, online label company, www.data-label.co.uk, decided to investigate the root cause. They surveyed over 1,000 people aged 18 and over to find out which of the big 4 supermarkets have the clearest labels, when it comes to displaying nutritional information and portion sizing.

They asked respondents to judge the labels on own brand 400g lasagne (which is a serving size for 1 person) from Asda, Sainsbury’s Tesco and Morrisons. The labels were displayed without the company logo and branding to make certain the survey was impartial. 

From the results, Sainsbury’s was deemed to have the clearest nutritional information on the labels, whilst Morrisons was judged as having the hardest to understand. 

• Sainsbury’s – 38 percent
• Asda – 37 percent
• Tesco – 15 percent
• Morrisons – 10 percent

The traffic light system which was adopted in the UK to help consumers see the nutritional and GDA information of food per portion varies from retailer to retailer and brand to brand. This is said to be confusing for shoppers, and detrimental in their mission to control portion size and choose healthier food options.

 “The traffic light system on food labels displays low, medium and high values, each of which corresponds to the traditional traffic colors: green, orange and red. Simple enough to understand and follow, but this is where people get confused, because each supermarket varies the weight this is worked out on, either per 100g or per portion which could be higher or lower than 100g depending on the product,” says Philip Carlyn, Managing Director at Data Label.

“The simple matter is that people are now consuming far more calories than they used too and a lot of this can be attributed to poor food labeling, which leads to confusing nutritional and GDA information,” he adds.