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Retail Business Environment

Notes Food labelling
McCain has to be aware of a number of legal factors. The government’s Food Standards
Agency has recommended that firms put ‘traffic light’ labels on food to help people
understand what they are buying and to help them make the right choices:
Red represents high levels of ingredients such as fats and salts.

Green represents low levels.
McCain has put ‘traffic light’ labels on its British products as a response to consumer
concerns about healthy eating. All of McCain’s potato products are able to display the
green label for saturated fat and none of its products show a red label.
Also featured on the labels are Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) which show how much
fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt each product contains. This helps the consumer to achieve
a consistently balanced diet.
Advertising
In the UK, advertising of products is supervised by a voluntary body within the advertising
industry. It is called the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
McCain makes sure that all its advertising sticks rigidly within the requirements of the
ASA. The ASA sets out that all adverts must be:
legal
decent

honest and
truthful.
Legislation
McCain takes these responsibilities very seriously. It is important to build a reputation
for honesty and fair play. In addition McCain’s products comply with a range of laws,
including:

The Food Safety Act, covering the way in which food is prepared and served.
The Trades Descriptions Act, which states that goods and services must be exactly as
described.

The Weights and Measures Act governing such aspects as giving the right weight on
packs. For example, McCain’s oven chips come in packs of 454g, 907g, 1kg, 1.5kg,
and 1.8kg.

Economic and political factors
Economic factors
Economic factors include changes in buying patterns as people’s incomes rise. For example,
as incomes go up people prefer to buy what they see as superior varieties of a product
type. We see this with the development of ready prepared foods.
As people become cash-rich and time-poor they prefer to switch to ready meals and
simple to prepare foodstuffs that they can quickly heat in an oven or microwave. Rather
than buying potatoes and making chips at home or taking the time to go to a fish and chip
shop, it may be seen as more desirable to buy oven chips. Of course, it may be cheaper to
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