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 IGD’s Industry Nutrition Strategy Group (INSG) began in 2008 to review how portion sizes are determined.
The group looked at how Government, food industry, non-governmental organisations and healthcare professionals approached the issue of portion size and recorded their findings in a report entitled: 'Portion size: A review of existing approaches'.
Main findings revealed that while portion sizes were generally founded on scientific evidence originating from Government or expert body publications, the way in which they were communicated to the general public lacked consistency.
The report therefore recommended developing good practice guidance on portion size communication to consumers, and this year, the INSG working group has released these guidelines, now available for download.
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Nutrition information |
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Why is portion size important?
Portion size is important for several reasons. Where nutrition information is provided, it is legally necessary to give the information ‘per 100g’ or ‘per 100ml’ of product. However, the information is also provided per portion for many food and drink products, therefore portion size is significant for labelling purposes. The portion size of a product may also influence the nutrient and energy content that would be consumed by an individual.
The rising prevalence of obesity has led to increased attention on the portion size of food and drink. The cross-government strategy on obesity, ‘Healthy weight: Healthy lives’, for example, calls for smaller portion sizes of energy dense (high fat and sugar) and salty foods while the recent Change4Life campaign has focused on the portion size of foods given to children in its ‘me size meals’ feature.
Consumer preferences
The INSG portion size working group first asked consumers what they understood by portion size and what information they found helpful.
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Consumers liked a clear indication of servings |
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The findings were published earlier this year in our report 'Portion size: Understanding the consumer perspective'. We found that consumers had a preference for simple communication formats. For example, where packs contained multiple servings of food, consumers liked a clear indication on the front of pack of the number of servings it contained.
Views on portion size communication from healthcare professionals
We also surveyed dietitians and nutritionists to ask how they communicate portion size to their patients, recognising their wealth of knowledge and experience. We found that comparing the size of the food portion to an everyday object such as a matchbox, pack of cards, cup etc was viewed by many as being most effective in helping their clients understand the quantity of different foods they should eat. The findings from this research are available in the free download 'Portion size communication in therapeutic practice: A survey of dietitians and nutritionists'.
Developing voluntary guidelines on communicating portion size to consumers
Voluntary guidelines were developed using the findings of our research. The guidelines do not offer a method for determining portion size and/or state what the portion size of food and drink products should be. They focus on communication of portion size including advice on labelling packaged retail goods, communication to customers by caterers, and general consumer communications.
The report ‘Voluntary guidelines on communicating portion size to consumers’ is available to download free below.
More information:
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