In the digital era: the future of food labelling in Europe

There was a time when food labelling in Europe was only a consumer-information tool. But, in an era where dietary risk factors are linked to severe health outcomes and an estimated 11 million deaths each year (2), labels are taking on a new role. In this regard, they are becoming part of a wider system of market governance, digital interpretation and trust-building.

In a recent report entitled “The Future of Food Labelling: Navigating Data, Regulation and Consumer Trust” (1), the EDHEC Centre for Net Positive Business investigates how transparency, clearer nutritional information, and digital tools can change the way consumers perceive food products and build trust. Developed with the contribution of industry partner Roquette, the report draws on foresight scenarios co-developed with the Lille-based company and its review of specific factual claims relating to national regulatory instruments.

The relationship between consumers and food labels is currently being rewritten by these profound shifts. First of all, consumer empowerment means shoppers move beyond marketing promises to demand verifiable proof. They also increasingly rely on digital tools and AI to navigate product choices. But these are not the only evolutions: today, regulations directly alter the consumer’s economic environment through market governance.

Here is a closer look at these profound shifts in consumer behavior and food products decoding.

A new kind of empowerment : from simple marketing promises to verifiable proof

An increasing demand for transparency…

According to a 2023 report from The Food Industry Association (FMI), more than three-quarters (76%) of surveyed grocery shoppers say transparency about ingredients and how food is made is important, up from 69% who said the same in 2018 (3). 

Consumers are getting more and more demanding about food transparency : what does this product contain? How is it made? How can consumers verify the claims on the packaging? This demand sits within a wider crisis of verification, with the need to navigate fake news, AI-generated content and corporate claims. Food labelling is part of that same trust environment. A simple marketing claim no longer lands simply because it appears on pack. It needs to feel credible and backed by evidence.

However, more information does not automatically create better understanding. As labels, claims and scores multiply, consumers need guidance that is simple enough to notice and act on quickly. Brands, retailers and regulators are increasingly expected to help consumers make better choices, rather than leaving them to navigate complexity alone. 

… And a growing vigilance towards processed foods

Vigilance toward ingredient lists, additives and processed foods (which is any food or drink that has been changed in some way when it's made or prepared, according to the NHS) is becoming central. In this regard, 33% of European consumers are consciously moderating their intake of processed foods, and 69% of them agree that food manufacturers should be forced to reformulate processed foods to make them healthier (4). 

This is driving industry efforts toward "clean labels" and shorter ingredient lists, even if consumer concern is rising faster than regulatory consensus. But the global debate surrounding processed foods remains highly contentious, as scientists, regulators and food manufacturers clash over how to define and regulate these products. 

In fact, not all processed foods carry the same nutritional implications : for example, the widely used NOVA classification groups plant-based milk in the same category as sodas, when one is unquestionably healthier than the other (5). 

Case in point

In the UK, Marks & Spencer’s “Only... Ingredients” range shows how simplicity can become part of the product proposition itself. Launched in 2025, the clean label food range includes products such as oat milk and cereals, each containing five ingredients or fewer. The ingredients are displayed clearly on the front of the pack, rather than being left to the back-of-pack ingredient list. The appeal is direct : consumers do not need to decode a long list or interpret a claim.

Let’s go shopping : the complexity of everyday choice

Health remains an important aspiration, but food choices are made in real-life conditions shaped by price, time, habit, convenience, trust, etc. These are rarely ideal.

Hence the growing demand for credible and easy to interpret information. Which is not necessarily more information ; as labels and claims multiply, consumers need guidance that is easy to understand. In more inclusive futures, simple on-pack signals, clear claims and better retail guidance will make healthy choices easier for a broad audience.

Labelling only works if consumers notice it, understand it, trust it and feel able to act on it. In this regard, the primary challenge for food companies is providing clear and understandable signals at the point of purchase.

The tech-enabled consumer: delegating trust to apps and AI

The data layer : food products become machine-readable

Product data is becoming more structured and machine-readable. This makes it possible for products to be scored, filtered, ranked and recommended in ways that go beyond the packaging. 

Nutrients, ingredients, additives and processing indicators can all become inputs into systems that classify and compare food information. But this data is no longer used merely on packaging ; it now triggers taxes (e.g., sugar-sweetened beverage taxes), advertising restrictions (such as HFSS regulations in the UK that targets foods that are high in fat, salt, and sugar), or shelf-placement rules.

Once product data is structured, the next question is who interprets it. This is the role of the decision layer : the apps and tools that translate product information into scores, rankings or recommendations. 

Open databases

Open databases are making food information searchable at scale by regulators and the public alike. For example, Open Food Facts hosts food data for more than 4 million products across 150 countries. Its role goes beyond consumer information and is used to inform state policy. Platforms such as WISEcode go further by analysing packaged foods across a much wider (190 !) set of attributes than standard nutrition panels.

What about apps? Some of them, like Yuka, have gained dynamic power over consumer habits. With 80 million users globally, one in three adults in France scanning products before purchase and 600,000 new US users a month, the app has acquired a regulatory-like influence. 

At this scale, an app can intervene in food choice more frequently than most public-health campaigns : in the US, 85% of Yuka users report changing purchasing habits based on app ratings !

When digital intermediaries take over

By 2030, more than half of European adults will use labels, food apps or AI tools to inform their food purchasing decisions. 

The shift is already here, as label reading is increasingly delegated to digital intermediaries. Consumer apps such as Yuka and AI food scanners like ZOE are replacing individual shoppers as the primary interpreters of food choices. 

As interpretation migrates to digital intermediaries, competitive advantage shifts from the on-pack label to the quality of the product data beneath it. 

Can digital tools reduce food and health inequality ?

Diet-related health inequalities are a persistent public health challenge in rich countries (6), disproportionately affecting economically disadvantaged populations. In France, for instance, food insecurity ranges between 5% to 7%, but spikes to 35% among vulnerable subgroups. 

While the expanding of labels and data reinforces transparency, it can also create a risk of nutritional inequality between tech-enabled consumers and those relying solely on physical packaging. Another issue is how information is interpreted and evaluated, as this skill is unevenly distributed across populations.

A regulated environment: how governance reshapes consumer choices

When labels become direct behavioral triggers

As we have seen, regulation connects to consumer behavior. But, if labelling can classify products and set incentives, its effect still depends on the environment in which people make food choices. Do they have time? Do they know about nutrition, and how to effectively read a label? Do they trust the messages they get? 

You might want to buy healthier products and hope for more transparency, while still making decisions under pressure from price, time, family needs, or convenience. 

A variety of levers coexist: governance tools (ingredient lists, nutritional declarations), action levers (taxes, advertising restrictions), and accountability measures (anti-waste requirements, sorting information). 

However, while all of these can steer consumer behavior, final decisions are made in real-world environments where factors like affordability carry as much weight as information itself.

Navigating different systems across Europe

European countries do not all guide consumers in the same way. The UK takes the toughest approach: products high in fat, sugar or salt face business penalties, like being banned from TV ads or store display entrances. France prefers a mix of  environmental display laws and voluntary tools, using Nutri-Score alongside eco-labels. Germany relies mostly on voluntary agreements with food companies, while the Netherlands focuses on getting brands to shrink portions and cut sugar or salt.

In every case, putting a logo on the front of the box remains optional. What changes from one country to another is how hard governments push brands to make their products healthier. Thus, labelling and nutrient profiling increasingly function as a gateway to market exposure and fair competition.

Logos, scores, labels… The risk of information overload

Stronger regulation can build trust when it creates clarity. It can also add complexity if consumers face multiple labels, overlapping criteria or technical scores that are difficult to interpret. In this way, information overload can reduce trust rather than build it. Expectations and behaviors differ across age cohorts, which reinforces the need to decide what must be understood immediately, and for whom labels are primarily being designed.

Food labeling now operates in a fragmented information environment, where health perceptions are shaped by labels, brands, social media, etc. Therefore, companies should treat trust-building as a long-term capability. This means investing in consumer education, making product claims easier to understand, and providing transparency.

More than ever, proof matters : any claim, whether about health, origin or sustainability, needs to be supported by clear and accessible information. 

To conclude

Food labelling has evolved far beyond a simple claim on a cardboard package. It is now expected to help people make better choices, support public health objectives and reinforce transparency. Yet, as tools like Nutri-Score and targeted taxes gain ground, the ultimate battleground remains the everyday purchasing decision.
But having more data doesn't help if people don't have the time, money or digital tools to analyze it. Ultimately, the future of food labelling isn't about creating more logos. It's about building an information system in which everything is connected : labels, data, knowledge and trust. 

More than ever, this makes labelling a strategic capability for companies, whose challenge is now to build systems that are strong enough for regulators, readable enough for digital tools, and clear enough for consumers. 

References

(1) Srivastava, Vinit Kumar and Tagliavini, Axel and Van Eeckhout, Laura, The Future of Food Labelling: Navigating Data, Regulation and Consumer Trust (September 01, 2026). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=7394819 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7394819

(2) Afshin A, Sur P, Fay K et al. Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
The Lancet, 2019; 393, 1958-1972 - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30041-8/fulltext

(3) Transparency Trends 2023: Food Shoppers Increasingly Prioritize Information (2023) FMI and NIQ (NielsenIQ) - https://www.fmi.org/forms/store/ProductFormPublic/transparency-trends-2023

(4) www.foodeducators.eu, Ultra-processed foods: what do consumers think? (2024) - https://www.foodeducators.eu/news-and-events/article/ultra-processed-foods-what-do-consumers-think

(5) Messina M, Messina V. Nova fails to appreciate the value of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives in the diet. J Food Sci. 2025 Feb;90(2):e70039. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.70039. PMID: 39929603; PMCID: PMC11810565. - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11810565/

(6) Carrillo-Alvarez E, Rifà-Ros R, Salinas-Roca B, Costa-Tutusaus L, Lamas M, Rodriguez-Monforte M. Diet-Related Health Inequalities in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of Observational Studies. Adv Nutr. 2025 Jun;16(6):100439. doi: 10.1016/j.advnut.2025.100439. Epub 2025 May 5. PMID: 40334986; PMCID: PMC12149430 - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40334986/

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