Russians wary of food label information
product labels, with the ingredients listing considered the most
likely to be incorrect, according to a recent survey by the CVS
Consulting group. Angela Drujinina reports.
The results of the survey show the most important label information for most Moscow food shoppers is the shelf-life (with 84 per cent of respondents citing this as their prime reaon for reading labels), followed by the content (62 per cent), country of origin (33 per cent), nutrition facts (21 per cent) and customer service information (8 per cent).
CVS Consulting questioned about 200 respondents to determine their attitude towards the information on the food packaging and their awareness of food products labelling information. The results of the survey were released at the Fight for the Consumer food labelling conference in Moscow on 30 November 2004.
But Muscovites remain sceptical about the quality of the information on offer in many cases. Some 72 per cent of those questioned said they were convinced that ingredients listings on most products did not include every item, with just 16 per cent trusting manufacturers in this case.
The presence of preservatives in their food is what worries Russian consumers the most - 65 per cent of respondents said they would not buy a product which contained preservatives. Respondents were asked to choose which of emulsifiers, preservatives, GM ingredients, artificial flavours and other components they liked the least.
Mikhail Mischenko, executive partner at CVS Consulting, said: "The preliminary results of the survey show that consumers are not well informed about what can and what must be included on food product labelling. It also shows a lack of awareness of what pieces of information are the most important, and what particular pieces of labelling information actually mean.
"This lack of knowledge enables food producers to manipulate consumers - but the results clearly show that most feel that they are being cheated."
