Australians are calling for clearer, more informative food labelling, with new findings from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) showing that while trust in labels remains high, many consumers still struggle to interpret key elements.
The 2024 Consumer Insights Tracker (CIT) surveyed 1231 Australians and 884 New Zealanders to measure attitudes, understanding, and trust in food labelling and the food regulation system in Australia and New Zealand. It asked 42 quantitative questions across domains, with five key focus areas;
- Trust and confidence in the food system
- Trust, use and understanding of food labelling
- Health and dietary factors affecting food choices
- Food safety knowledge and behaviours
- New and emerging foods and food technologies.
FSANZ said 66 per cent of consumers trust food labelling regulated by the agency, and 71 per cent feel confident using it. However, for those who reported low confidence, key barriers included labels being too small to read, not understanding what the information meant, concerns about label trustworthiness, and a lack of time to read labels in the first place.
The report found around half of participants misunderstood the Health Star Rating (HSR), with many incorrectly believing it can be used to compare different categories of foods. FSANZ began work in 2023 to support mandating the front-of-pack HSR system, which the survey found was viewed as more important by consumers who felt less confident using food labels, compared to the Nutrition Information Panel or Ingredients list.
Used-by and best-before dates were rated as the most trusted and important labelling elements. Trust in these two areas saw a slight increase from 2023 to 2024, making them the only labelling elements to record any growth in consumer trust over the year. Nutrition content claims remained the least trusted.
Consumers identified a desire for more guidance on food safety, particularly in storage and preparation. Product labels were the preferred channel for accessing this information, highlighting packaging’s role as a key communication tool.
While trust in food labels has remained steady year-on-year, the report points to an ongoing need for improvements in how labelling is designed and delivered. FSANZ noted, “More work can be done to support the adoption of clear and informative labels.”
To read the full report, click here.
