in light of the growing prevalence of diet - related diseases , governments , retailers and food companies promote nutrition labelling to help the consumer make healthy , informed food choices . in addition , the world health organization includes nutrition labelling as part of its global strategy on diet , physical activity and health ( world health organization , 2004 ) . nutrition labelling aims at highlighting essential information about the nutritional value and composition of products . currently , such information is not compulsory in the european union ( eu ) unless a nutrition or health claim is made ( ec , 1990 , 2006 ) . according to a recent review ( grunert and wills , 2007 ) , consumers showed widespread interest in nutrition information on food packages , though this interest varied across situations and products . most consumers reported good subjective understanding of the most common signposting formats , which is supported by findings showing reasonable objective understanding ( malam et al . virtually no insight exists as to how labelling information is , or will be , used in a real - world shopping situation , and how it affects consumers dietary patterns ( cowburn and stockley , 2005 ; grunert and wills , 2007 ) . food labelling to advance better education for life ( flabel ) is an eu - funded project which has been set up to elucidate whether the use of nutrition labelling on food products impacts on consumers ' dietary choices and shopping habits . fundamental to this objective is the assessment of current exposure of consumers to nutrition information on food labels . at present , data on the penetration of nutrition information on food labels in europe are scarce , with previous studies reporting an average prevalence of tabular nutrition information of 56% ( european advisory services , 2004 ) . however , that audit involved only a subset of countries , considered only tabular nutrition information , and did not look at all products within a product category . on the other hand , two surveys from the united states , where nutrition labelling became mandatory in 1994 , reported virtually complete labelling of pre - packaged foods from a broad range of product categories ( brecher et al . the results presented in this paper constitute the first eu - wide study to give a real - life insight into current exposure of consumers to nutrition information on food labels . the audit period lasted from september 2008 to april 2009 and data collection was carried out in all 27 eu member states and turkey . in each country , three types of food retail stores were selected with an emphasis on broad coverage of different product manufacturers : a food retailer from the top five in terms of market share , a consumer cooperative ( or national retailer if a consumer cooperative was not available ) , and a discounter ( hard discounter if possible ) . all products within the following five categories were examined : sweet biscuits , breakfast cereals , pre - packed chilled ready meals , carbonated soft drinks and yoghurts . the criteria for choosing these product categories were that they were pre - packaged foods , both foods and beverages , both meal and snack items , and foods consumed at different times and in different contexts . the five different food categories were defined as follows : 
 sweet biscuits  main ingredients flour , sugar , fat ; including chocolate coated , with jam , in bags , packs , so on.breakfast cereals cereals to be eaten at breakfast time ( with milk ) , excluding cereal bars.pre-packed chilled ready meals fresh ready meals stored at 28  c , ideally containing a carbohydrate source ( rice , pasta , potatoes ) , a protein source ( meat , poultry , fish ) and vegetables . this includes vegetarian varieties , and dishes that constitute a meal ( even if not containing the three elements above).carbonated soft drinks non - alcoholic fizzy drinks that people drink as refreshment , in cans or bottles.yoghurtsfermented milk products containing the word  yoghurt ' on the pack , natural or fruit flavoured , single pack or multipack , also drinkable yoghurt . fat ; including chocolate coated , with jam , in bags , packs , so on . breakfast cereals  cereals to be eaten at breakfast time ( with milk ) , excluding cereal bars . fresh ready meals stored at 28  c , ideally containing a carbohydrate source ( rice , pasta , potatoes ) , a protein source ( meat , poultry , fish ) and vegetables . this includes vegetarian varieties , and dishes that constitute a meal ( even if not containing the three elements above ) . carbonated soft drinks  non - alcoholic fizzy drinks that people drink as refreshment , in cans or bottles . yoghurts  fermented milk products containing the word  yoghurt ' on the pack , natural or fruit flavoured , single pack or multipack , also drinkable yoghurt . two data collection grids were developed for use in the stores , a product and a nutrition information grid . the product grid was used to record the product name , brand name , manufacturer , pack size , and if applicable , variety . the nutrition information grid was used to record the nutrition information found on each food package , such as the type of labelling scheme ( for example , traffic lights , guideline daily amounts ( gda ) , health logo , nutrition table ) , the format of the schemes ( that is , horizontal , vertical , tabular ) , the presence of nutrition information ( for example ,  big 4 ' ( that is , energy , carbohydrates , protein , fat ) or  big 8 ' ( that is ,  big 4 ' plus sugar , saturated fat , fibre , sodium ) ) , or the presence of nutrition or health claims as defined by current european law ( ec , 1990 , 2006 ) . in this study , logos on food packages were considered as  health logos ' if their use was restricted to food products that fulfilled certain nutrient criteria ( which may vary from logo to logo and may consider dietary guidelines ) and as such represented a healthier option in that category . information was considered as front - of - pack ( fop ) if it was displayed in the principal field of vision ( ec , 2008 ) , which in turn was guided by the placement of product name and brand . descriptive statistics ( percentages , minima , maxima , means ) and graphs were computed using microsoft excel 2003 sp 3 . the audit period lasted from september 2008 to april 2009 and data collection was carried out in all 27 eu member states and turkey . in each country , three types of food retail stores were selected with an emphasis on broad coverage of different product manufacturers : a food retailer from the top five in terms of market share , a consumer cooperative ( or national retailer if a consumer cooperative was not available ) , and a discounter ( hard discounter if possible ) . all products within the following five categories were examined : sweet biscuits , breakfast cereals , pre - packed chilled ready meals , carbonated soft drinks and yoghurts . the criteria for choosing these product categories were that they were pre - packaged foods , both foods and beverages , both meal and snack items , and foods consumed at different times and in different contexts . the five different food categories were defined as follows : 
 sweet biscuits  main ingredients flour , sugar , fat ; including chocolate coated , with jam , in bags , packs , so on.breakfast cereals cereals to be eaten at breakfast time ( with milk ) , excluding cereal bars.pre-packed chilled ready meals fresh ready meals stored at 28  c , ideally containing a carbohydrate source ( rice , pasta , potatoes ) , a protein source ( meat , poultry , fish ) and vegetables . this includes vegetarian varieties , and dishes that constitute a meal ( even if not containing the three elements above).carbonated soft drinks non - alcoholic fizzy drinks that people drink as refreshment , in cans or bottles.yoghurtsfermented milk products containing the word  yoghurt ' on the pack , natural or fruit flavoured , single pack or multipack , also drinkable yoghurt . fat ; including chocolate coated , with jam , in bags , packs , so on . breakfast cereals  cereals to be eaten at breakfast time ( with milk ) , excluding cereal bars . fresh ready meals stored at 28  c , ideally containing a carbohydrate source ( rice , pasta , potatoes ) , a protein source ( meat , poultry , fish ) and vegetables . this includes vegetarian varieties , and dishes that constitute a meal ( even if not containing the three elements above ) . carbonated soft drinks  non - alcoholic fizzy drinks that people drink as refreshment , in cans or bottles . yoghurts  fermented milk products containing the word  yoghurt ' on the pack , natural or fruit flavoured , single pack or multipack , also drinkable yoghurt . two data collection grids were developed for use in the stores , a product and a nutrition information grid . the product grid was used to record the product name , brand name , manufacturer , pack size , and if applicable , variety . the nutrition information grid was used to record the nutrition information found on each food package , such as the type of labelling scheme ( for example , traffic lights , guideline daily amounts ( gda ) , health logo , nutrition table ) , the format of the schemes ( that is , horizontal , vertical , tabular ) , the presence of nutrition information ( for example ,  big 4 ' ( that is , energy , carbohydrates , protein , fat ) or  big 8 ' ( that is ,  big 4 ' plus sugar , saturated fat , fibre , sodium ) ) , or the presence of nutrition or health claims as defined by current european law ( ec , 1990 , 2006 ) . in this study , logos on food packages were considered as  health logos ' if their use was restricted to food products that fulfilled certain nutrient criteria ( which may vary from logo to logo and may consider dietary guidelines ) and as such represented a healthier option in that category . information was considered as front - of - pack ( fop ) if it was displayed in the principal field of vision ( ec , 2008 ) , which in turn was guided by the placement of product name and brand . descriptive statistics ( percentages , minima , maxima , means ) and graphs were computed using microsoft excel 2003 sp 3 . in total , 37365 products from five food and beverage product categories were audited ( table 1 ) in 84 individual retail stores across all 27 eu member states and turkey ( table 2 ) . the vast majority of stores were located in capital or big cities , with the exact choice guided by easy access from the nearest airport or major train station . an average of 85% ( range 7097% ) of these products displayed on the back of the pack one or more of the items considered , versus 48% ( range 2482% ) for fop penetration ( figure 1 ) . countries at the top end of the range for provision of bop information were ireland , uk and the netherlands , whereas slovenia and cyprus represented the bottom end . for fop information , the leading countries were the uk and ireland , while turkey showed the lowest penetration . the most widespread format across all countries was bop tabular or linear listing of nutrition content ( 84% average penetration ) , highlighting either the  big 4 ' ( 34% penetration ) or the  big 8 ' ( 49% penetration ) , the remainder being made up of other combinations or just the energy content ( 1% penetration ) ( figure 2 ) . big 8':'big 4 ' was 1.4 across all products , ranging from 0.7 for yoghurts to 5.2 for breakfast cereals . the gda system was the most prevalent form of fop nutrition information , ranging from 2% in turkey to 63% in the uk and averaging 25% across all countries ( figure 3 ) . whereas penetration of fop nutrition claims ranged from 12% in estonia to 37% in ireland and portugal , with a european average of 25% ( figure 4 ) , health claims and health logos were used on very few products ( data not shown ) . the average penetration of health claims was 4% bop ( from 0.5% in spain and czech republic to 8% in ireland ) and 2% fop ( from < 0.5% in france , portugal and spain to 6% in finland ) , whereas the average penetration of health logos was 1% on the bop ( from 0.1% in portugal and latvia to 9% in the netherlands ) versus 2% on the fop ( from 0.1% in portugal and latvia to 12% in sweden and the netherlands ) . in the following seven countries , none of the audited products bore any health logos : cyprus , czech republic , france , germany , poland , romania and slovakia . in contrast , health logos peaked at 47% on breakfast cereals in sweden and at 27% on yoghurts in the netherlands . depending on the product category , austria , denmark , estonia , finland , greece , ireland , slovenia and the uk exceeded a level of 5% penetration for health logos , with varying emphasis on fop or bop labelling . traffic light labelling was only encountered on products audited in spain ( 3% fop , 3% bop ) and the uk ( 3% fop , 2% bop ) ( data not shown ) . among the five categories of products audited , breakfast cereals showed the highest penetration of items considered in this audit , providing bop information on 94% of products ( from 79% in bulgaria to 100% in france , ireland and the netherlands ) and fop information on 70% of products ( from 43% in turkey to 93% in france and germany ) ( data not shown ) . typically , the minimum information provided was the bop nutrition table ( 94% ) , mostly containing the  big 8 ' ( 78 versus 15%  big 4 ' ) . on the other hand , sweet biscuits had the lowest penetration of nutrition - related information ( 76% bop , 25% fop ) , and the split for the bop nutrition table ( 76% penetration ) was even between  big 8 ' and  big 4 ' at 38% each . yoghurts were the only product category where the  big 4 ' were more prevalent than the  big 8 ' ( 51 versus 36% , total bop nutrition table 88% ) . at the same time , yoghurts showed the highest penetration of health claims , reaching up to around 30% ( bop ) in ireland and bulgaria , and around 20% in the uk , romania , denmark , belgium , malta and the netherlands . of note , no ready meals fitting the criteria the flabel consortium defined for this category were found in the following five countries : bulgaria , cyprus , italy , malta and romania . however , these countries do have chilled ready meal - type foods that are available unlabelled and unpackaged over the deli counter . in total , 37365 products from five food and beverage product categories were audited ( table 1 ) in 84 individual retail stores across all 27 eu member states and turkey ( table 2 ) . the vast majority of stores were located in capital or big cities , with the exact choice guided by easy access from the nearest airport or major train station . an average of 85% ( range 7097% ) of these products displayed on the back of the pack one or more of the items considered , versus 48% ( range 2482% ) for fop penetration ( figure 1 ) . countries at the top end of the range for provision of bop information were ireland , uk and the netherlands , whereas slovenia and cyprus represented the bottom end . for fop information , the leading countries were the uk and ireland , while turkey showed the lowest penetration . the most widespread format across all countries was bop tabular or linear listing of nutrition content ( 84% average penetration ) , highlighting either the  big 4 ' ( 34% penetration ) or the  big 8 ' ( 49% penetration ) , the remainder being made up of other combinations or just the energy content ( 1% penetration ) ( figure 2 ) . big 8':'big 4 ' was 1.4 across all products , ranging from 0.7 for yoghurts to 5.2 for breakfast cereals . the gda system was the most prevalent form of fop nutrition information , ranging from 2% in turkey to 63% in the uk and averaging 25% across all countries ( figure 3 ) . whereas penetration of fop nutrition claims ranged from 12% in estonia to 37% in ireland and portugal , with a european average of 25% ( figure 4 ) , health claims and health logos were used on very few products ( data not shown ) . the average penetration of health claims was 4% bop ( from 0.5% in spain and czech republic to 8% in ireland ) and 2% fop ( from < 0.5% in france , portugal and spain to 6% in finland ) , whereas the average penetration of health logos was 1% on the bop ( from 0.1% in portugal and latvia to 9% in the netherlands ) versus 2% on the fop ( from 0.1% in portugal and latvia to 12% in sweden and the netherlands ) . in the following seven countries , none of the audited products bore any health logos : cyprus , czech republic , france , germany , poland , romania and slovakia . in contrast , health logos peaked at 47% on breakfast cereals in sweden and at 27% on yoghurts in the netherlands . depending on the product category , austria , denmark , estonia , finland , greece , ireland , slovenia and the uk exceeded a level of 5% penetration for health logos , with varying emphasis on fop or bop labelling . traffic light labelling was only encountered on products audited in spain ( 3% fop , 3% bop ) and the uk ( 3% fop , 2% bop ) ( data not shown ) . among the five categories of products audited , breakfast cereals showed the highest penetration of items considered in this audit , providing bop information on 94% of products ( from 79% in bulgaria to 100% in france , ireland and the netherlands ) and fop information on 70% of products ( from 43% in turkey to 93% in france and germany ) ( data not shown ) . typically , the minimum information provided was the bop nutrition table ( 94% ) , mostly containing the  big 8 ' ( 78 versus 15%  big 4 ' ) . on the other hand , sweet biscuits had the lowest penetration of nutrition - related information ( 76% bop , 25% fop ) , and the split for the bop nutrition table ( 76% penetration ) was even between  big 8 ' and  big 4 ' at 38% each . yoghurts were the only product category where the  big 4 ' were more prevalent than the  big 8 ' ( 51 versus 36% , total bop nutrition table 88% ) . at the same time , yoghurts showed the highest penetration of health claims , reaching up to around 30% ( bop ) in ireland and bulgaria , and around 20% in the uk , romania , denmark , belgium , malta and the netherlands . of note , no ready meals fitting the criteria the flabel consortium defined for this category were found in the following five countries : bulgaria , cyprus , italy , malta and romania . however , these countries do have chilled ready meal - type foods that are available unlabelled and unpackaged over the deli counter . this study provides a realistic picture of the penetration of nutrition labelling and related information on food packs in europe . the main finding is that tabular / linear nutrition information as defined in nutrition labelling directive 90/496/eec was present on a large majority of products audited despite the fact that the provision of this information is a voluntary practice in europe in the absence of nutrition or health claims ( ec , 1990 , 2006 ) . to our knowledge , this audit is the first to assess the penetration of nutrition labelling across all 27 eu member states and turkey . a previous , smaller - scale study ( european advisory services , 2004 ) recorded the presence of tabular nutrition labelling (  big 4 ' or  big 8 ' ) on 2954 products from 51 product categories in the four eu member states germany , poland , spain and the uk , and reported an average penetration of 56% . this lower figure is probably explained by two factors : ( 1 ) food labelling practices are continuously evolving and the number and penetration of labelling systems has increased since 2004 , and ( 2 ) product categories such as spices , chewing gum , tea and coffee were included , which rarely carry the tabular nutrition information audited for . additionally , not all products in each of the 51 categories were audited , so that the real penetration per category may have been different . survey data from the united states , where mandatory nutrition labelling was implemented in 1994 , showed that in 1997 practically all packages from a representative sample of food products falling under the national labelling regulation had nutrition labels ( brecher et al . , 2000 ) . these results were confirmed in a follow - up survey in 20002001 ( legault et al . , 2004 ) . all products belonging to the categories defined for the flabel audit fulfilled the nutrition labelling requirements except for pre - packed chilled ready meals , which had 9099.9% labelling . with regard to the extent of nutrition information , in most cases at least the calorie , fat , carbohydrate and protein contents ( the  big 4 ' ) of a specific product were provided , and this information was usually found on the back of pack ( bop 84 versus fop 3% ) . however , this high penetration is not explained by the presence of nutrition or health claims , which would render the provision of such information mandatory ( ec , 1990 , 2006 ) . research suggests that consumers value the presence of nutrition information on food packs ( gracia et al . , 2009 ) , which in turn might drive manufacturers to provide such information voluntarily in order to create a marketing advantage . more recently , various fop nutrition labelling schemes have emerged such as the traffic lights scheme , gda , or health logos , to provide consumers with nutrition information that is easy to access while shopping . it is noteworthy that the 1990 nutrition labelling directive 90/496/eec ( ec , 1990 ) is currently being revised and the new proposal includes mandatory fop labelling of energy , fat , saturated fat , carbohydrates , sugar , and salt per 100  g / ml ( ec , 2008 ) . ireland and the uk have been very active in nutrition labelling and this is supported by the high penetration of fop gda ( 58 and 63% , respectively ) . van camp ( 2009 ) recently reported comparable figures for fop gda in the uk and likewise found higher figures for ( breakfast ) cereals and ready meals than for sweet biscuits . the uk also plays a prominent role in traffic lights labelling ( for example , sainsbury 's supermarkets limited , london , uk ; asda , leeds , uk ) , however , few other countries have retailers employing such colour - coded systems ( for example , intermarch in france , eroski in spain ) . health claims , on the other hand , were much less widely spread in this study ( 4% bop , 2% fop ) , and mainly occurred on breakfast cereals and yoghurts . for example , nutrient content and health claims in the us had an average penetration of 34 and 4% , respectively ( legault et al . , 2004 ) , with large differences between product categories . two australian studies that focused entirely on the presence of claims on pre - packed foods reported 36% of the audited products to bear a nutrient content claim ( williams et al . , 2003 ) and 14% to carry a health - related claim ( williams et al . , 2006 ) . again , large variations were observed depending on the product category , but energy or sports drinks and ( breakfast ) cereals frequently appeared among the top categories . the high numbers for health logos in some product categories in sweden and the netherlands are largely explained by the use of the swedish keyhole ( swedish national food administration , 2007 ) , the choices logo ( choices international foundation , 2007 ) , and the own brand logo  healthy choice clover ' by the dutch retailer albert heijn included in this audit , respectively . the swedish keyhole was developed by the swedish national food administration and applies to products that contain less fat , sugar , and salt and more fibre ( depending on the category ) than a comparable product , and as such represent a healthier option within a product category . the choices logo is a fop logo on food products that also fulfil a set of qualifying criteria , based on international dietary guidelines , and is currently used by around 130 companies around the globe . the albert heijn logo  healthy choice clover ' considers the contents of saturated fat , trans fat , sugar and salt of foods and highlights a  healthy choice ' or an  informed choice ' depending on the product category . it has been speculated that health logos based on international consensus may be a simple way to brand healthier food options , especially for young children ( cinar and murtomaa , 2009 ) . the physical audit had to be restricted to a select number of stores for reasons of feasibility , and store choice was partly governed by retailer permission to conduct the research in their stores . this means that not all of the existing nutrition labelling schemes in a country ( for example , colour - coded labelling in france ) were taken into account . however the major aim of this audit was to map the penetration of nutrition information irrespective of format . food products in supermarkets are usually organized and grouped by aisle , and we audited all the food products present in the corresponding product category aisle in the different retail stores . however , products belonging to any of the five product categories audited but placed elsewhere in the store ( for example , in an organic aisle , or a specific discount area ) were not included . the impact of this omission is likely to be small , though , as for example products on promotion are usually also found in the main category aisle , and specialty products ( such as  organic ' range or  diabetic ' products ) are not necessarily singled out on separate shelves elsewhere in the store . additionally , in both cases the number of products tends to constitute a small fraction of the total in that product category . finally , tesco as a partner in the flabel consortium , provided store access in 7 of the 28 countries . tesco uses gda labelling on its own brand products , which may have resulted in an overrepresentation of gda labelling in the study . nevertheless , tesco is not the only retailer using the gda system in europe and tesco brand products represented only a fraction ( 2.7% ) of all the food products audited . on the other hand , many of the branded goods manufacturers use gda labelling on their brands in categories such as breakfast cereals , carbonated soft drinks and yoghurts , thus leading to the overall high penetration figures for gda across countries . the physical audit had to be restricted to a select number of stores for reasons of feasibility , and store choice was partly governed by retailer permission to conduct the research in their stores . this means that not all of the existing nutrition labelling schemes in a country ( for example , colour - coded labelling in france ) were taken into account . however the major aim of this audit was to map the penetration of nutrition information irrespective of format . food products in supermarkets are usually organized and grouped by aisle , and we audited all the food products present in the corresponding product category aisle in the different retail stores . however , products belonging to any of the five product categories audited but placed elsewhere in the store ( for example , in an organic aisle , or a specific discount area ) were not included . the impact of this omission is likely to be small , though , as for example products on promotion are usually also found in the main category aisle , and specialty products ( such as  organic ' range or  diabetic ' products ) are not necessarily singled out on separate shelves elsewhere in the store . additionally , in both cases the number of products tends to constitute a small fraction of the total in that product category . finally , tesco as a partner in the flabel consortium , provided store access in 7 of the 28 countries . tesco uses gda labelling on its own brand products , which may have resulted in an overrepresentation of gda labelling in the study . nevertheless , tesco is not the only retailer using the gda system in europe and tesco brand products represented only a fraction ( 2.7% ) of all the food products audited . on the other hand , many of the branded goods manufacturers use gda labelling on their brands in categories such as breakfast cereals , carbonated soft drinks and yoghurts , thus leading to the overall high penetration figures for gda across countries . taken together , a large majority of the more than 37000 products audited carried tabular / linear nutrition information , which is at present voluntary in the absence of nutrition or health claims . these findings provide the basis for subsequent studies involving attention , reading , liking , understanding and use by consumers of different nutrition labelling formats , which will be explored in the next phases of the flabel project . major outcomes of flabel will be best practice guidelines for research into nutrition labelling as well as a research - based best practice proposal for nutrition labelling , tested in a real - world store environment .
objectives : the european union ( eu)-funded project food labelling to advance better education for life ( flabel ) aims to understand how nutrition information on food labels affects consumers ' dietary choices and shopping behaviour . 
 the first phase of this study consisted of assessing the penetration of nutrition labelling and related information on various food products in all 27 eu member states and turkey.methods:in each country , food products were audited in three different types of retailers to cover as many different products as possible within five food and beverage categories : sweet biscuits , breakfast cereals , pre - packed chilled ready meals , carbonated soft drinks and yoghurts.results:more than 37  000 products were audited in a total of 84 retail stores . on average , 
 85% of the products contained back - of - pack ( bop ) nutrition labelling or related information ( from 70% in slovenia to 97% in ireland ) , versus 48% for front - of - pack ( fop ) information ( from 24% in turkey to 82% in the uk ) . 
 the most widespread format was the bop tabular or linear listing of nutrition content . 
 guideline daily amounts labelling was the most prevalent form of fop information , showing an average penetration of 25% across all products audited . among categories , 
 breakfast cereals showed the highest penetration of nutrition - related information , with 94% bop penetration and 70% fop penetration.conclusions:nutrition labelling and related information was found on a large majority of products audited . 
 these findings provide the basis for subsequent phases of flabel involving attention , reading , liking , understanding and use by consumers of different nutrition labelling formats .