Packer, Jessica;
(2023)
Front of Pack Food Labels and UK Policy.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Front of pack labels (FOPLs) aim to enable consumers to make healthier choices and encourage product reformulation. At the time of writing, the United Kingdom (UK) Government was reviewing the current FOPL policy to ensure that it is based on high quality, relevant evidence. I conducted an online randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of FOPL schemes (Multiple Traffic Light, MTL; Nutri-Score, N-S; Warning Label; Positive Choice tick) on objective understanding of product healthiness in a British population and to assess subjective factors likely to impact on engagement, informing UK policy development. Additionally, I conducted latent class analysis to understand how participant characteristics may impact on FOPL engagement and held a patient and public involvement/engagement (PPIE) session to understand the views of children and young people (CYP) on FOPLs and policy options. I found that all FOPL schemes improved participants’ ability to correctly rank products according to their healthiness, with N-S, followed by MTL showing the largest effects. Time to correctly rank the products was fastest using N-S; MTL and N-S were most favourably perceived; and descriptive analyses indicated N-S was the most stable FOPL across education and income groups. Latent class analysis indicated that regardless of FOPL engagement and motivation factors, FOPLs improved participants’ ability to correctly understand product healthiness, but perceptions of labels and confidence using labels varied. The PPIE session showed CYP supported mandatory implementation of FOPL, finding N-S and MTL as the easiest to use and understand. I found FOPLs were effective at improving the ability of consumers to understand product healthiness, with evidence suggesting a summary indicator FOPL may work best across all population groups. The evidence supports the mandatory implementation of FOPLs in the UK, which will be integral to their effectiveness, improving diet quality through consumer understanding and product reformulation.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Front of Pack Food Labels and UK Policy |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10178984 |
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