Consumer education, food labelling and nutrition communication
Domain 7 asks you to read a label the way a critical consumer would and to judge claims and communication instruments by legal thresholds and by their communicative effect. You need both the regulation and the persuasion perspective.
Mandatory information under Reg. 1169/2011
Name of the food, ingredient list with the 14 declarable allergens emphasised (bold), net quantity, MHD or Verbrauchsdatum, storage and use conditions, name and address of the food business operator, nutrition declaration (energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein, salt) per 100 g or 100 ml, plus alcohol content above 1.2 % vol.
Nutrition claims - the numbers
Reg. 1924/2006: low fat ≤3 g/100 g, fat-free ≤0.5 g/100 g, low sugar ≤5 g/100 g, sugar-free ≤0.5 g/100 g, source of fibre ≥3 g/100 g, high fibre ≥6 g/100 g, high protein ≥20 % of energy from protein. Health claims need EFSA assessment and must appear in the EU register under Reg. 432/2009.
Front-of-pack and communication
Nutri-Score has been the German national recommendation since 2020, voluntary, with a five-step A–E scale calculated from energy, sugar, saturated fat, salt, protein, fibre and fruit/vegetable/nut components. It ranks products within a category, not a whole diet, and is not a health claim. Communication models (sender–receiver, AIDA) explain why front-of-pack labels, influencer posts and "health halo" packaging shape purchase decisions; risk communication must distinguish relative from absolute risk.
Worked example
A cereal pack states "mit 30 % weniger Zucker". The relative statement is only allowed if the reference product is named and the comparison is meaningful within the category. The absolute content decides whether a nutrient claim is legal: if the product still contains 18 g sugar per 100 g, it exceeds the 5 g threshold, so "zuckerarm" would be prohibited and "ohne Zuckerzusatz" would be permissible only if no sugar of any kind was added - even though naturally present sugars remain. A mark is earned by separating the relative advertising statement from the absolute legal threshold.
Traps
- Treating "ohne Zuckerzusatz" as "sugar-free".
- Assuming Nutri-Score is a health claim or that it rates a complete diet.
- Quoting a relative risk reduction as if it were absolute.
- Forgetting that allergens must be emphasised in the ingredient list, not only in a separate box.