The University of Surrey and the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) have published the results of their latest European nutrition labelling consumer research.
Medical News Today reported that the two organisations carried out an online survey - which reached a total of 13,117 people in 6 EU countries - to find out how consumers interpreted and used the information found on food and drink labels.
The report found that only one-third of respondents looked for portion information on food and drink packages, despite almost half claiming it was relevant to them. This differed by country, from 70 per cent in Spain to 36 per cent in Germany.
Price and use-by date are still the most-looked for on labels, with almost 90 per cent of consumers claiming to often or always look for this information. 79 per cent of consumers were able to accurately read and relay nutrient information from labels.
Portion information is an integral part of packaging, according to the respondents, and is generally perceived as the amount one should be eating.
Consumers' preferred presentation format for portion information depended on the type of food.
'Per 100g' or 'per 100ml' was the preferred format for cheese, soft drinks, soup and condiments; but 'per pack' was the preferred presentation format for other portion information.