It has been suggested that beer drinkers may be unaware that beer contained a lot of calories! Whilst this could be true for a young and inexperienced, possibility first time drinker, we feel sure that a man who has carefully nurtured a “beer belly” will be only too aware that the average pint or 20oz glass has upwards of 180 kcal or more, depending on the alcoholic content!
World’s biggest food companies fail to agree on new unified nutrition label for Europe
Producing a food label designed to help consumers decide whether the product would be suitable for people with a diabetic condition, high blood pressure, heart disease or obesity has proved to be a bit of a minefield. The European idea was to have a “Traffic Light” system depicting colours ranging from red to green, to indicate whether a portion of a given food was high in calories, fat, and sugar or salt.
Barcodes on polling cards to be trialled by three councils
At the last General Election there was a lot of talk in media circles regarding the possibility of some fraud having taken place, which could have affected the results in some constituencies. The British system of voting has changed very little since the Act of Union in 1707.
To vote in a general or local authority election a person must be 18 years of age or over on polling day, have to be a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen and also must be resident at an address in the UK.
Unilever and Veolia sign collaboration agreement to work on sustainable packaging
Unilever and Veolia have signed a deal to work together on emerging technologies, and in particular, focusing on material collection. The new three-year collaboration will look to expand waste collection and recycling infrastructures around the world.
This work will ensure that recycled materials are used properly and that they are added back into the value chain as opposed to being sent to landfill. Veolia will execute used packaging collections, add to its recycling capacities and develop new processes and business models in various countries.
Michael Gove to launch new food strategy for the UK after Brexit
Michael Gove has set out plans to launch a new food strategy for the UK after Brexit, following criticism about his Agriculture Bill not talking about food policy. Gove also announced a £15m food surplus redistribution scheme, aimed at generating 250 extra meals per year.
Speaking at the Conservative Party event in Birmingham, Mr Gove stated that the Tory government is in the best position to bolster the UK’s food and farming industries, despite concerns about the effect a no-Brexit deal to have.
Government launches public consultation on calorie labelling when eating out
In a bid to better educate consumers about the calorie content of food and drink they consume when dining out, the government has launched a public consultation initiative where consumers are asked for their views on whether pubs, restaurants and takeaways should display calorie information for their products.
The consultation will ask consumers for their views regarding:
- Which businesses should display calorie information
- What additional information should be displayed
Food shoppers favour supermarkets own brand products instead of traditional brands
After the recent news reports around misleading packaging on supermarket’s own based products, ones that had a similarity with the more well-known brands. We carried out several surveys to investigate further to see what consumers thought about the packaging and labelling.
There has been a lot of talk recently that supermarket’s own brand packaging was far too similar to well-known brands, and that this could cause confusion to consumers and misleading them to buy, what they think is the more traditional brands.
A new study reveals that 1 in 3 men don’t read nutritional labels on food because they don’t understand them
A new study conducted by the National University of Ireland in Galway has found that 1 in 3 men do not read the nutritional labels on food because they do not understand them. While 95% of women look at food labels often, just 65% of men regularly look at the nutritional labels on food.
Why it’s important to design packaging with Millennials in mind
Millennials have now overtaken baby boomers as the largest generation and now represents a consumer base with immense buying power, so when designing packaging, it is more important than ever to keep millennials and their values in mind.
Millennials spend up to 18 hours a day consuming media content, whether it is online, TV or radio and their access to information at the touch of a button, while being bombarded with scrolling pictures on social media, streaming videos and digital adverts now means that the average attention span has diminished to just 5 seconds, so gaining their attention is key to promoting your brand.
New project sees homeless people given barcodes to accept cashless payments
A new project, backed by Oxford University is giving homeless people barcodes to wear around necks to increase donations as Britain moves further towards a cashless society. The initiative, called Greater Change gives homeless people laminated labels, similar to those found on online tickets.
Those who wish to donate money, but do not have any change on them can scan the code on their smartphone and make an online payment to the person. The money is collected in an account and is managed by a case worker who makes sure that the money is spent on agreed targets such as saving for a rent deposit.