A sensible consensus is a must on the UK's proposed health labelling scheme
for food packaging, argues Alcan Packaging Europe's marketing and communications
manager, Kath Atikinson.

As legislation affects more and more areas of business, the packaging industry
is the latest to feel its effects. The Food Standards Agency's proposed traffic
light labelling system has spurred ongoing debate amongst the grocery trade and
manufacturers regarding alternative design formats, and consideration really
should be give to how such changes will affect food packaging and its current
use within brand promotion. Ultimately, we should be asking: What will such
legislation do to brands?

With most brand owners currently leveraging the promotional properties of
packaging and utilising it as a sales driver, such legislation could prove
critical to brand success. While subtle or cleverly applied labelling of health
advantages can prompt consumer selection and offer a point of differentiation,
confused messaging and inconsistent signage could prove detrimental to some
brands.

Mixed messages around what consumers should look out for on pack and varying
symbols and colour codes could, if we're not careful, act as barriers to
consumers rather than benefits, causing confusion and potentially restricting
selection if purchasers don't understand what the labelling means.

As well as the effect such confused messaging my have on a brand and the way
consumers perceive it, further threats lie in just how far such legislation is
likely to develop. Should legislation around
food
labelling and content warnings escalate, following in the footsteps of the
tobacco industry, brand owners could soon find they have lost a valuable
marketing tool - namely their point of sale promotion.

As the tobacco industry has demonstrated, such labelling requirements have the
potential to spiral considerably. If nutritional information becomes a required
percentage of a pack's design, on-shelf differentiation will become increasingly
difficult to establish. Brand owners will need to look at alternative and often
more costly, promotional solutions to keep their brand at the forefront of the
consumer's mind.

It is important that a single consumer-friendly standard is agreed upon amicable
that also leaves room for brand messaging. The grocery sector and brand owners
need to work with the Food Standards Agency, rather than generating resistance,
to agree on something that works for everyone. Otherwise brand owners may find
themselves at the mercy of government legislation - and suffering as a result.