Walk into a supermarket, hypermarket, convenience store, or minimart aisle and take mental notes of what you see. The increasing share of Indonesian modern grocery retail selling processed and packaged foodstuff in boxes rose to 73% and reached $16.6b in 2022, stimulating the need to advocate for clear legible information on food labels.

Processed and packaged foods have been through multiple processes that alter the raw, original form of foodstuff, which almost inevitably changes their nutritional value. While consumers hold power and are responsible for choosing the foods being purchased and consumed, making informed decisions is challenging under the exposure to many food product alternatives. 

But fear not, fellow consumers; we have one of the most common and useful resources at our disposal to become better-informed buyers: food labels.

What is a food label?

According to the regulation of the Indonesian Food and Drug Authority (Badan Pengawas Obat dan Makanan, BPOM), a food label is any information in the form of pictures, writing, a combination of both, or other forms that is attached to food packaging regarding the respective packaged and processed foods put on the market for sale. This label includes the food and foodstuffs’ origin, safety, quality, nutritional content, and other information key for consumer protection.

Food labels or ‘nutrition facts’ are affixed to a product to inform consumers about the nutritional value of food products. Such information may allow consumers to compare the nutritional value of products from the same food group, prevent or lessen consumer deception about products from different food groups based on their nutritional quality, and ensure accountability from manufacturers to disclose their products’ ingredients and nutritional values sold on the market. 

All in all, the power of food labels lies in the information it holds. 

Nutritional information on a product typically includes details about its macro- and micronutrients, such as total energy, total carbohydrates (including sugars), protein, total and saturated fats, as well as salt. This means understanding the content of food labels empowers us as consumers to choose the foods that are suited for our biological necessities and/or our nutrition and health conditions.

Unfortunately, the food labeling systems have thus far remained difficult to comprehend.

Research shows that attitudes, previous nutrition education, and sociodemographic characteristics, such as age and gender, substantially impact food label use behavior. For example, a cross-sectional study has shown that a non-health department student has a higher risk of lower nutritional literacy due to lower exposure to nutrition and health knowledge. Additionally, low literacy in food labeling is associated with low reading and numeracy skills.

In Indonesia, although nearly 70% of Indonesian consumers read food labels, only 37.5% examine them before making a purchase. One possible explanation for this could be they found the labels to be too difficult to understand.

If that is the case, what is the point of having food labels if only a few groups of people can understand them?

Learning a food label

Let’s dive into learning an example.

This is the nutrition label of a prepackaged box of sweet tea that is widely available in Indonesia. 

Here are the elements of a food label: 1) servings per container; 2) amount per serving or calories; 3) key nutrient information (in grams); and 4) percent daily value (%DV). 

The serving size (No.1) refers to the amount the product is commonly served. In this example, one serving size is equal to 200 mL (approximately one cup). With prepackaged foods such as this, however, products are often consumed directly and prone to overconsumption. The information on servings per container helps us identify this as it indicates that one box of tea equals 2.5 servings per container or can be drunk. That’s 500 mL of sweet tea when consumed in one sitting. 

The amount per serving or calories (No.2) provides more clarity about the product as it describes how much energy is acquired from one serving size. Multiplying the number stated in the example by 2.5 servings, finishing this tea in one go means drinking approximately 280 kcal (e.g., a total of 70 x 4 = 280 calories from a beverage). 

The nutrients section (No.3) is the meat of the sandwich. This section can be used as a reference to know which nutrients we need more of and which we are avoiding. 

For example, consumers with high blood pressure should be conscious about sodium. Sodium can raise blood pressure by causing water retention and affecting blood vessels, and thus consumers with hypertension should limit sodium intake to 1,500 mg per day. People with high cholesterol levels should pay more attention to saturated fat and ensure a limit of 13 grams per day to keep steady cholesterol levels. For those at risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and diabetes mellitus, watch out for added sugars. Sugars should be limited to 25 grams per day as they can raise glucose, insulin, and uric acid levels, and lead to other issues, such as impaired glucose tolerance, insulin and leptin resistance, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and altered platelet function which are related to a higher risk of CHD. The same holds true for consumers needing to limit calorie intake. 

Drinking this tea in one go means consuming 42.5 grams of sugar, which already exceeds the limit of daily sugar intake for adults.

The percent daily value (%DV) of each nutrient (No.4) helps to gauge the product of interest. The %DV shows how much nutrient is consumed in one serving according to the recommended daily calorie intake, which is often designed at 2,000 calories for adults. Bear in mind that adequate calorie requirements may vary across people, sex, age, etc.; however, the general rule of thumb is that ≤5% is a low number and ≥20% is a high number. For example, when looking for a snack for a person with hypertension, the snack should have a low level of sodium (less than 5%). 

While valuable, such extensive information remains too complicated and perhaps time-consuming for most.

Who has the time to get groceries and stop to review every product at hand?

Efforts to simplify nutrition facts

Fortunately, there are systems in place that have simplified food labels such that extensive nutrition facts can be quickly comprehended by all of us.

Nutri-Score is a modification of nutrition labels that have been used in multiple European countries, including France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland. 

Officially launched in 2020 as part of the Information for Consumers (INCO) regulation, Nutri-Score was selected from four other food labeling systems as the easiest label for consumers to comprehend. The Nutri-Score label embedded on food packaging gives an overall score to the respective product based on their nutritional value from a good or bad aspect. The good aspects include vegetables, fruits, legumes, fiber, and protein. The bad are calories, sugar, saturated fat, and salt. 

The grading system is determined by allocating points for each positive and negative nutrient according to its amount in the product, based on their ceiling limit. The total score is calculated from the total of favorable nutrients (fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, oils, fiber, and protein) and unfavorable nutrients (energy, sugars, saturated fats, and sodium). Based on this score, the product is rated from A to E; A being the product with better nutritional value (highlighted in dark green) and E the worse (dark orange). 

However, an A or B rating does not necessarily mean the product is healthy; rather, it is only a better option than a similar product rated with an orange D. 

The downside is that the Nutri-Score system does not work for every type of food group commonly available in modern grocery retail, including cakes and pastries, bread and cereal products, milk and dairy beverages, cheese, and processed meats. Therefore, it needs to be modified for each food group to be accurately applicable as the scoring system still relies on positive and negative points based on favorable nutrients and unfavorable nutrients.

Singapore also has a similar food labeling system called the Nutri-Grade, which was specifically designed as a mitigation strategy to address the increasing prevalence of diabetes in the country. Similarly, this system uses an A (high) to D (low) grading system in beverage products and is determined by the content of added sugars and saturated fats in a drink. For example, bottled tea is graded B, whereas a can of soda is graded D.

Food labeling in Indonesia

Despite their remaining laws, the Nutri-Score and Nutri-Grade food labeling systems represent a significant step toward increasing information accessibility about the nutritional content of packaged and processed foods and beverages and empowering consumers to make better-informed decisions about the products being purchased and consumed.

Such advancements could serve as a model for Indonesia, where food products (eg, traditional holiday cakes and cookies) either do not feature their nutritional information, only have a list of the ingredient composition, or sometimes even provide no information about the product at all. This is particularly concerning as public health nutrition challenges continue to rise in both urban and rural areas.

But simply affixing food labels on the packaging without education is wasteful and puts a huge burden on the consumers to fully autodidact.

This is where public education comes into play.

Food labeling can be socialized through public health centers (puskesmas) or other healthcare centers with the help of healthcare professionals. Social media also provides a vital platform to socialize information to younger generations, including those related to food labeling, as 51.9% of Indonesian youth use media to find information related to nutrition. This suggests the role of media in improving nutrition literacy levels among consumers, regardless of their background, sociodemographic characteristics, or field of study. 

Public education should also be directed toward the private sector. We encourage the government, specifically BPOM, to ensure that all businesses in the food and beverage industry disclose the correct nutritional content of their products. 

As is the case with Nutri-Score and Nutri-Grade, the government could implement a color-coded food labeling system where the nutritional quality of certain food products can be identified based on the front-label scoring system. Scoring systems on the front of food packaging are more likely to be viewed by consumers and can thus support an easier selection of healthier food purchases.

But change begins with you. The next time you walk into a supermarket, hypermarket, convenience store, or minimart aisle, take a moment to read the food labels of some products of interest and choose the ones best suited for your needs.

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