Consumer Council Proposes Comprehensive Food Labeling Scheme to Simplify Healthy Choices

The Consumer Council is taking the floor in favor of a completely new scheme that will be far more comprehensive than the current Keyhole label.

The proposal comes after the Consumer Council has carried out a large survey. A full 83 percent of respondents said that the labeling of food should be improved so that it is easier to see whether the food is healthy or unhealthy. More than 2,000 people were interviewed.

– The figures show that many people are concerned about making healthy choices when they shop for food in the store. At the same time, today’s labeling schemes have a lot to go on to make it easier for people to make healthy choices, says head of consumer policy at the Consumer Council, Gunstein Instefjord to Nettavisen.

The keyhole label, which was introduced in 2009, should make it easier to make healthy choices, but the scheme has several weaknesses, the Consumer Council believes.

Several weaknesses

– A weakness of Nøkkelhullet is that it is not a mandatory mark. A product that lacks the label may mean that the product is too unhealthy to receive the Keyhole, but it may also mean that the manufacturer has simply chosen not to label their product for other reasons, says Instefjord.

In that way, it is difficult for consumers to know whether unlabelled goods are healthy or unhealthy.

– Another obvious weakness of the Keyhole is that there is no corresponding brand for the unhealthy products, those that are not healthy enough to get the Keyhole, says Instefjord.

The Consumer Council is now advocating for a labeling of at products.

– Many consumers struggle to understand the nutritional declaration that is written in small print on the back of the package, says Instefjord.

– Good nutrition labeling on the front of all food products is absolutely necessary, preferably in the form of a color code. And it must become mandatory so that it becomes easier to choose products with less sugar, salt and fat, he says.

He believes that labeling all products according to their healthiness will make it much easier for people to opt out of the most unhealthy foods.

Food giant positive

Orkla is among the country’s largest manufacturers of food products and is behind brand names such as Grandiosa, Nidar, Idun, Kims and Toro.

– Orkla Foods Norge is a dialogue partner in a large Norwegian research project, NewTools, which aims to create a new labeling scheme for Norwegian food products. A similar process is also underway in the EU, says communications director at Orkla Foods, Dag Olav Stokken.

– For the time being, the aim of this project is for mandatory nutritional labeling to be introduced for all products, regardless of nutritional content. We are positive about such mandatory labeling, says Stokken.

The grocery industry is skeptical

The response from industry organization Virke is not as positive. They organize the Norgesgruppen with chains such as Kiwi and Meny and also Coop and Bunnpris.

– Both the Directorate of Health and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority believe the Keyhole scheme is successful and promotes healthy choices, and Virke agrees with the health authorities on this, says industry director for groceries, Bendik Solum Whist.

He points out that Nøkkelhullet compares goods in the same category and is used as a tool to tell the consumer which is the healthiest alternative.

More complicated

– The scheme is well known and easy to understand for consumers, and it gives results in the form of more healthy products being chosen, documented through many surveys under the auspices of the Directorate of Health, says Whist.

He believes the Consumer Council’s alternative will be more complicated and more difficult for consumers to understand and use.

– The health authorities would rather invest in something that is simple and that consumers use rather than something that is more complicated and that may not be understood and used to the same extent. Virke supports the health authorities in this assessment, says Whist.