In 2003, EHN published a report of a systematic review of the literature on consumer understanding of nutrition labelling.
In general terms, this study found that consumers do not understand some of the technical terms used on the current labels. Nor do they understand which nutrients are most important to look at, what counts as a lot or a little of a nutrient in a product, whether small differences in nutrient levels between products are important and, how to trade off high levels of one nutrient against low levels of another nutrient.
EHN’s comments on the Commission Consultation paper are largely based on the findings of this review.