The George Institute for Global Health, The University of New South Wales, Level 5, 1 King St, Newtown, Sydney, NSW, 2042, Australia.
University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2023 Sep 26;20(1):105. doi: 10.1186/s12966-023-01504-3.
Food product labelling can support consumer decision-making. Several food product labels (nutrition information panels (NIPs), ingredients lists, allergen declarations and country-of-origin) are mandated for physical product packaging in Australia, with a voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labelling system, Health Star Ratings (HSRs), also available. However, labelling requirements are not explicitly extended to online settings and the extent to which this information is available in these increasingly important food environments has not been assessed.
Data from all individual food product pages was collected from the online stores of the two dominant supermarket retailers in Australia using automated web scraping in April-May 2022 (n = 22,077 products collected). We assessed the proportion of pages displaying NIPs, ingredients, allergens, country-of-origin and HSRs after excluding products ineligible to display the respective label. We also assessed whether HSRs were differentially available for higher- (healthier) and lower-scoring (less healthy) products, with HSR scores drawn from a comprehensive Australian food composition database, FoodSwitch. A manual inspection of randomly selected product pages (n = 100 for each label type per supermarket), drawn from products displaying the relevant label, was conducted to assess whether the labels were immediately visible to users (i.e. without scrolling or clicking). Differences in labelling prevalence and visibility were compared using chi-squared tests.
Across both supermarkets, country-of-origin labelling was almost complete (displayed on 93% of food product pages), but NIPs (49%), ingredients (34%) and allergens (53%) were less frequently displayed. HSRs were infrequently displayed (14% across both supermarkets) and more likely to be applied to higher-scoring products (22% on products with ≥ 3.5HSR v 0.4% on products with < 3.5HSR, p < 0.001). One supermarket was far more likely to make NIPs (100% v 2%, p < 0.001), ingredients (100% v 19%, p < 0.001) and allergens (97% v 0%, p < 0.001) information immediately visible, though the other made HSRs more apparent (22% v 75%, p < 0.001). Both supermarkets displayed country-of-origin labels prominently (100% v 86%, p < 0.001).
Food product labelling varies in online supermarkets in Australia overall and between supermarkets, while the design of online stores resulted in differences in labelling visibility. The near-complete display of country-of-origin labels and differential application of HSRs to higher-scoring products may reflect their use as marketing tools. Our findings highlight an urgent need for food labelling regulations to be updated to better account for online retail food environments.
食品产品标签可以支持消费者做出决策。在澳大利亚，几种食品产品标签（营养信息面板（NIPs）、成分列表、过敏原声明和原产国）都被强制要求贴在实体产品包装上，同时还有一个自愿的前置营养标签系统，即健康星级评级（HSR）。然而，标签要求并未明确扩展到在线环境，并且尚未评估这些日益重要的食品环境中此类信息的可用性。
我们于 2022 年 4 月至 5 月期间，使用自动网络爬虫从澳大利亚两家主要超市的在线商店中收集所有单个食品产品页面的数据（共收集到 22077 个产品）。在排除不具备显示相应标签资格的产品后，我们评估了显示 NIPs、成分、过敏原、原产国和 HSR 的页面比例。我们还评估了 HSR 是否会根据更高（更健康）和更低得分（更不健康）的产品而有所差异，HSR 分数取自澳大利亚全面的食品成分数据库 FoodSwitch。我们还对随机选择的产品页面（每个超市每种标签类型各 100 个）进行了手动检查，这些产品都显示了相关标签，以评估标签是否能立即被用户看到（即无需滚动或点击）。我们使用卡方检验比较了标签的流行程度和可见性差异。
在这两家超市中，原产国标签的显示率几乎达到了 100%（在 93%的食品产品页面上显示），但 NIPs（49%）、成分（34%）和过敏原（53%）的显示频率较低。HSR 的显示频率较低（两家超市均为 14%），并且更有可能应用于得分较高的产品（在得分≥3.5 的产品上有 22%的应用，而在得分<3.5 的产品上只有 0.4%，p<0.001）。一家超市更有可能立即显示 NIPs（100%v2%，p<0.001）、成分（100%v19%，p<0.001）和过敏原（97%v0%，p<0.001）信息，尽管另一家超市更能明显地显示 HSRs（22%v75%，p<0.001）。这两家超市都非常醒目地显示原产国标签（100%v86%，p<0.001）。
澳大利亚的在线超市在食品产品标签方面总体存在差异，并且在超市之间也存在差异，而在线商店的设计导致了标签可见性的差异。原产国标签近乎完全显示，以及 HSR 更倾向于应用于高分产品，这可能反映了它们作为营销工具的用途。我们的研究结果突显了迫切需要更新食品标签法规，以更好地适应在线零售食品环境。
