The legal and voluntary information on food labels, including mandatory information, nutritional labelling and traffic-light colour coding, allergen labelling, and how marketing and advertising influence food choice.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to know what information must legally appear on food labels, the voluntary extras, how nutrition and traffic-light labelling work, and how marketing shapes choice. You should link label information to how it helps the consumer.

Mandatory (legal) information

Allergen labelling

Allergen rules are strict because a reaction can be life-threatening (anaphylaxis). The 14 allergens must be emphasised in the ingredients list, typically in bold, so they cannot be missed. Since the Natasha's Law change, food that is prepacked for direct sale (for example a sandwich made and wrapped on site) must also carry a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised, closing a gap that previously left some freshly made food unlabelled.

Nutritional and traffic-light labelling

Nutrition information shows the energy (in kcal and kJ) and the amounts of fat, saturates, sugar, salt and protein, usually per 100 g and per portion, often alongside reference intakes (RIs). RIs are guideline daily amounts for an average adult (for example around 2000 kcal of energy and no more than 6 g of salt), letting shoppers see what proportion of a day's intake a portion provides.

Many products also use front-of-pack traffic-light colour coding for fat, saturates, sugar and salt:

• Green - low (a healthier choice).
• Amber - medium (fine most of the time).
• Red - high (eat less often, smaller portions).

This system lets shoppers compare two similar products at a glance and pick the one with more greens and fewer reds. Showing values per 100 g is what makes fair comparison possible, because portion sizes differ between brands.

Voluntary information and marketing

Voluntary information includes serving suggestions, recipes, nutrition and health claims, and logos such as Fairtrade, the organic logo, the Vegetarian Society trademark or the Red Tractor assurance mark. These help shoppers who care about ethics, animal welfare or provenance, but unlike allergens and dates they are not legally required.

Marketing and advertising influence choice through attractive packaging and branding, special offers (such as buy-one-get-one-free and multibuys), advertising on television and online, celebrity endorsement, and placement in shops (eye-level shelves, end-of-aisle displays and sweets at the checkout). These techniques can encourage people to buy more, or to buy less healthy products, which is why some are now restricted, for example limits on multibuy promotions and advertising of high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt foods to children.

Try this

Q1. State three pieces of information that must legally appear on a food label. [3 marks]

• Cue. Name of food, ingredients in weight order, allergens, weight, date, storage or cooking instructions, manufacturer.

Q2. Explain what an amber traffic light tells the shopper. [2 marks]

• Cue. The food is medium in that nutrient (fat, saturates, sugar or salt), an acceptable choice most of the time.