Comparative nutrition claims are those that compare a property of one product to the same property of another product – for example, ‘Contains half the sugar of similar products’.
Comparative claims are subject to the following rules:
- the product can only be compared to products in the same category of foods (for example, you couldn’t compare the amount of calcium in a pint of milk to that in a chocolate bar)
- the comparison must be against a range of foods rather than a single competing product
- manufacturers can make comparisons to their own product (for example, ‘30% less salt than our standard beans’) but they must also consider the composition of similar products to ensure the comparison is fair
- the difference in the amounts of the substance must be stated
- all comparisons must be based on the same amount of food
