Role of Health-related Claims and Symbols in Consumer Behaviour (CLYMBOL)

Funder: European Commission
Project dates: Jan 2012 - Aug 2016

The CLYMBOL project was led by the European Food Information Council with 13 other partners, from nine different countries. Partners included university-based research groups including the CPNP, a government agency and an international retailer. 

The project investigated the effects of health-related claims (including health symbols) on food packaging on the purchasing and consumption of foods. Health-related claims are phrases such ‘low fat’ or ‘good for your heart’ and include health symbols such as the Nordic Keyhole symbol which signals that a foods is a healthier choice.

As our contribution to the CLYMBOL project CPNP:

• conducted a systematic review of the previous literature on the impact of health related claims on dietary choices
•  developed the protocol for, and helped analyse the results of a survey of health-related claims on pre-packaged foods available to purchase in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Slovenia
• carried out analyses to compare the nutritional quality of foods that carry health-related claims and foods that do not
• developed a model to predict the impact of health-related claims on mortality from non-communicable diseases in the UK under different regulatory scenarios.