New Research: What UK Studies Reveal About the Link Between Food Labelling and Consumer Purchasing Decisions

# New Research: What UK Studies Reveal About the Link Between Food Labelling and Consumer Purchasing Decisions

Most of us glance at food packaging without giving it much thought — a quick look at the calories, maybe a scan of the traffic lights, and into the trolley it goes. But a growing body of UK research suggests that what's on the front of a pack shapes our choices far more than we realise, and that the design of those labels matters enormously.

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The State of Food Labelling in the UK

The UK currently operates a voluntary front-of-pack labelling system based on traffic light colours — red, amber, and green — alongside reference intakes for calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt. This system, endorsed by the Food Standards Agency and widely adopted by major retailers, was designed to make nutritional information quick and easy to interpret at a glance.

What makes the UK's approach distinctive is that it combines colour coding with percentage reference intakes, rather than relying on either alone. The idea is that shoppers get two layers of information: a gut-level colour signal and a more precise numerical anchor. Whether that combination actually works as intended is where the research gets interesting.

It's worth noting that since Brexit, the UK has diverged slightly from EU labelling requirements, giving domestic regulators more flexibility — but also creating ongoing debate about whether the voluntary nature of the current system is adequate.

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What the Evidence Shows

A significant body of UK research has examined whether front-of-pack labels actually influence what people buy — and the findings are nuanced.

A 2022 study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition, drawing on data from the UK Biobank and retail panel surveys, found that shoppers exposed to traffic light labelling were more likely to select products with lower saturated fat and sugar content, particularly in categories like ready meals, breakfast cereals, and dairy. The effect was modest but statistically meaningful, and it was most pronounced among people who already had some nutritional awareness.

Research from the University of Oxford's Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention has consistently shown that colour-coded labels outperform text-only labels in helping people make faster, more accurate assessments of a product's nutritional profile. Speed matters in a supermarket — most purchasing decisions happen in seconds.

However, a 2023 systematic review from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine complicated the picture. It found that while labels influence individual product choices, the effect on overall diet quality is less clear. People may swap one product for a slightly better version within the same category without meaningfully changing their broader eating patterns. It's a reminder that labelling is one tool, not a complete solution.

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The Gap Between Intention and Behaviour

One of the most consistent findings across UK consumer research is the so-called "intention-behaviour gap" — people say they want to eat well and claim they use food labels, but observed behaviour in real shopping environments tells a different story.

A 2021 study by Which? found that while over 70% of UK consumers said they checked nutritional labels before buying, eye-tracking research conducted in supermarkets showed that the majority spent less than two seconds looking at the front of pack. Shoppers were far more likely to focus on price, brand familiarity, and product placement than nutritional information — especially during busy shopping trips.

This doesn't mean labelling is pointless. It suggests the labels that work best are those designed to communicate instantly, without requiring the shopper to do much cognitive work. The traffic light system performs better here than nutrient-by-nutrient percentage tables, which require mental arithmetic most people aren't doing mid-aisle.

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Where Labels Fall Short

Even well-designed labels have blind spots, and UK researchers have been increasingly vocal about them.

Portion size distortion is one of the most cited issues. Labels frequently display nutritional values per 100g rather than per realistic portion, which makes direct comparison between products misleading. A ready meal labelled "per half pack" when most people eat the whole thing is technically accurate but practically unhelpful. A 2023 report by the British Nutrition Foundation highlighted this as one of the most common sources of consumer confusion.

The healthfulness halo is another documented problem. Research from the University of Surrey found that shoppers sometimes interpret a green traffic light on one nutrient — say, fat — as a signal that the whole product is nutritious, even when it carries red or amber ratings for sugar and salt. A low-fat flavoured yoghurt might carry a green light for fat while being high in added sugar, but the green light can dominate perception.

There's also the question of what isn't labelled. Front-of-pack systems focus almost entirely on macronutrients and a handful of other markers. Fibre content, for example — a nutrient most UK adults are significantly short on — rarely features prominently despite its well-established role in gut health and satiety. The same goes for micronutrients like iron, magnesium, and vitamin D.

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The Nutri-Score Debate

While the UK maintains its traffic light system, much of Europe has moved towards or is considering Nutri-Score — a single letter grade from A to E with accompanying colour coding, developed in France. Several UK researchers and public health bodies have asked whether Nutri-Score might serve consumers better by offering a single, clear signal rather than multiple colour-coded bars.

The evidence on Nutri-Score is broadly positive in European contexts. A 2022 meta-analysis published in Nutrients found it significantly improved the nutritional quality of purchasing decisions across multiple European countries. However, critics — including some UK nutritionists — argue that it oversimplifies by collapsing all nutritional information into a single score, which can produce counterintuitive results. Olive oil, for instance, scores poorly under some versions of Nutri-Score despite being widely regarded as a health-supportive fat.

The UK's current system, for all its imperfections, preserves more nuance. The ongoing question is whether nuance is actually useful when most people are shopping quickly and under pressure.

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Who Benefits Most — and Who Gets Left Behind

Perhaps the most important finding to emerge from UK labelling research is that the benefits are not evenly distributed.

Studies consistently show that people with higher levels of nutritional literacy, higher incomes, and more time to shop are most likely to use and benefit from front-of-pack labels. A 2020 paper in the British Journal of Nutrition found that label use was significantly lower among lower-income households, older adults with lower educational attainment, and people shopping in discount retailers where own-brand products often carry less prominent labelling.

This matters because it means that labelling, on its own, is likely to widen health inequalities rather than narrow them. The populations who could benefit most from clear nutritional information are often the least positioned to act on it — whether due to cost constraints, time pressures, or unfamiliarity with nutritional concepts. Researchers argue that labelling needs to be part of a broader policy toolkit that includes food environment changes, pricing interventions, and genuine nutritional education.

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Practical Takeaways

You don't need to become a label expert to make food labelling work for you, but a few habits can help.

Look at the traffic lights as a pattern, not in isolation. A product with mostly green and amber ratings is generally a more nutritious choice than one with multiple reds — but a single green light doesn't tell the whole story.

Check the portion size first. Before reading any nutritional values, confirm what serving size they refer to and whether it reflects how you'd actually eat the product. This single step clears up a lot of confusion.

Use per 100g values for comparison. When choosing between two similar products, the per 100g column is the fairest basis for comparison, regardless of pack size or serving suggestion.

Don't ignore the back of pack. The ingredients list, which runs from highest to lowest quantity, can tell you a great deal about a product's actual composition that the front-of-pack summary doesn't capture.

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Food labelling in the UK has come a long way, and the research shows it does move the needle — just not as far or as equitably as we might hope. Understanding its limitations makes you a sharper reader of the information that's already on the shelf.

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