What does informed choice mean?

Three meanings in descending order of age: the principle, that a decision is yours only if you were given what it needs, and the purpose written into consumer law, where the food label exists to enable an informed choice

What does informed choice mean is a question with three answers, and they are best given in the order the meanings arrived, because the later ones borrowed from the earlier and a person who knows the oldest can read the youngest correctly. The first and oldest meaning is a principle: a choice is informed when the person making it was given what the choice needs, and a decision that is nominally theirs but was made without that information was not their choice in any sense that matters. The principle became a legal standard in UK health care when the Supreme Court held that a patient must be told of any material risk of a treatment and of the reasonable alternatives, material meaning a risk a reasonable person in the patient's position would attach significance to, with the information owed by the clinician and the decision belonging to the patient. The three features of the principle travel with it everywhere it is used: the information is owed, not hunted for; what counts as needed is judged from the chooser's position, not the provider's; and alternatives, including doing nothing, are part of what is owed.

The second meaning is a purpose written into consumer law, and it is the one that governs every packet and tub a buyer picks up. The food information rules that set what a label must say open by stating their object, which is to provide a basis for consumers to make informed choices about the food they eat and to use it safely, and everything the rules require follows from that purpose. A label must carry the name of the food, so the buyer knows what it is; the ingredients in descending order of weight, so the buyer knows what it is made of and in what proportion; the allergens emphasised, so a buyer with an allergy can choose safely; the quantity of ingredients that the name or the picture emphasises; the date and the storage conditions; and the name and address of the business responsible, so that the buyer knows who answers for it. Those are the particulars the law decided an informed choice requires, and the point of listing them is that the label is not marketing with some rules attached, it is the information, written for the chooser by a law that named the choice as its object. A buyer who reads the label as the document it was written to be has made the choice the law intended, and a buyer who reads the front of the pack and the logos has made a choice the law did not design for.

Two meanings set out, the principle and the purpose, with the third and youngest meaning, the programme that borrowed the phrase, how the three are held together on a tub, the worked example as a label that supplies the second meaning and the verdict in the next section.

The third and youngest meaning, a certification programme's name; how a buyer holds the three meanings together on a tub, the label as the information and the logo as one screened risk; the worked example; and the verdict

The third and youngest meaning is a certification programme's name. A UK programme screens supplements for substances on the anti-doping prohibited list, by a blind-sampling regime of product bought from the market, and lists the products it has certified in a public database; it named itself after the phrase, and the name is apt in one respect, because an athlete choosing a product without knowing whether it was screened is choosing without one material piece of information. But the programme attests one thing, that the product has a record of clean screening for banned substances, and the two words on the tub do not mean that the buyer was given what the choice needs in the first or second sense; they mean that one risk, relevant to one kind of buyer, has been looked for. The programme is real and its work is useful, and the borrowing is where confusion starts, because a buyer who meets the phrase for the first time on a tub takes the youngest meaning for the whole.

The three meanings are held together on a tub in a simple way. The first meaning sets the standard: the buyer is owed what the decision needs, judged from their position, with alternatives. The second meaning says where most of that is: on the label, in the mandatory particulars, the name, the ingredients, the allergens, the quantities, the date, the responsible operator, and, for a supplement, the dose of each nutrient against the reference value, which the supplement rules add. The third meaning is one line of the information, for one kind of buyer: a tested athlete reads the logo, checks the database, and has one material risk covered; everyone else notes it and moves on to the label. What neither the label nor the logo supplies, and the first meaning still requires, is the evidence for this person, the interactions with their medicines and the alternative of the plate, which the buyer gets from a test, a pharmacist and an honest count of what they eat. A person who has read the label as the law intended, treated the logo as one line, and collected the rest has made an informed choice in all three senses at once.

The worked example is read as a label that supplies what the second meaning requires: {FL} carries the name of the food, the three ingredients in descending order, magnesium bisglycinate, the HPMC capsule shell and rice flour, the magnesium declared at 300mg elemental per daily dose of two capsules as 80% of the nutrient reference value, the recommended dose and the warnings the supplement rules add, the date, and the name and address of a UK responsible operator, with its claims for normal muscle function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue from the register; it is not enrolled in the programme that carries the phrase, which it says, and it is batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day. What the label cannot supply, the evidence for the buyer's own plate and the spacing from their medicines, the buyer collects from a plate reading and a pharmacist. The full label breakdown is here.

The verdict: informed choice means three things, in descending order of age. A principle, that a decision is yours only if you were given what it needs, judged from your position and including the alternatives, which the UK Supreme Court made the legal standard in health care. A purpose in consumer law, which the food information rules name as their object and which is why a label must carry the name, the ingredients, the allergens, the quantities, the date and the responsible operator. And a certification programme's name, the youngest, which screens one risk for one kind of buyer. The buyer holds the first, reads the label as the second, and treats the logo as the third.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

What is the meaning of informed choice?

Three meanings that arrived in order: a principle, that a decision belongs to the person making it only if they were given what the decision needs, the material risks and the reasonable alternatives judged from their position, which the UK Supreme Court made the legal standard for consent in health care; a purpose written into consumer law, where the food information rules state that their object is to enable consumers to make informed choices, which is why a label must carry the name, ingredients, allergens, quantities, date and responsible operator; and a UK certification programme's name, the youngest, which screens supplements for banned substances by blind sampling and lists the products it certifies.

What is the purpose of food labelling law?

To enable informed choices, in the law's own words: the UK food information rules open by stating that their object is to provide a basis for consumers to make informed choices about the food they eat and to use it safely, and every mandatory particular follows from that purpose, the name of the food, the ingredients in descending order of weight, the allergens emphasised, the quantity of ingredients the name or picture emphasises, the date and storage conditions, the nutrition declaration on most foods, and the name and address of the responsible business; the label is the information the law decided a choice requires, written for the chooser, and the front of the pack is not.

Is Informed Choice a certification or a principle?

Both, which is where the confusion comes from: the principle is the oldest meaning, that a choice is informed only when the chooser was given what it needs, and the UK certification programme is the youngest, having borrowed the phrase for a programme that screens supplements for substances on the anti-doping prohibited list by blind sampling and publishes the certified products in a database; the programme is real and attests one thing, a clean screening record for banned substances, and a buyer who meets the phrase first on a tub and takes it for the whole principle has read a logo as a conversation, which the principle itself would not allow.

What information do I need to make an informed choice about a supplement?

The label's mandatory particulars first, which the law wrote for exactly this: the name, the ingredients in order, the allergens, the dose of each nutrient per daily serving and as a percentage of the reference value, the warnings, the date and the responsible operator's address; then the two things the label cannot print, the upper level for each nutrient and the authorised claim on the register, both looked up; then the three things no label supplies and the principle still requires, the evidence for your own situation from a test or a plate reading, the interactions with your medicines from a pharmacist, and the alternative of the plate; a logo on the tub is one line of that information, for a tested athlete, and not the rest.

Does this site's magnesium label give the information for an informed choice?

It supplies what the second meaning requires and says what it does not: the name, the three ingredients in descending order, magnesium bisglycinate, the HPMC capsule shell and rice flour, the magnesium declared at 300mg elemental per daily dose of two capsules as 80% of the nutrient reference value, the recommended dose and warnings, the date, a UK responsible operator with an address, and claims for normal muscle function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue from the register; it is not enrolled in the programme that carries the phrase, is batch tested for four metals, UK made under GMP and BRC, and costs 22p a day, and the buyer adds a plate reading and a pharmacist's word on spacing from any medicine.

Sources

1. The retained Food Information to Consumers regulation: the mandatory nutrition declaration for foods, its fixed order of energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein and salt per 100g, and its rules on portion information, with supplements declaring nutrients per daily dose against nutrient reference values. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2011/1169/contents
2. The UK Supreme Court's judgment in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board, which set the modern standard for informed choice in health care: a patient must be told of any material risk and of reasonable alternatives, material meaning a risk a reasonable person in the patient's position would attach significance to, so that the decision is the patient's and the information is owed to them. https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2013-0136.html
3. The sports supplement certification programmes: Informed Sport, Informed Choice, BSCG and NSF Certified for Sport test products or batches for banned substances, the assurance competing athletes rely on. https://sport.wetestyoutrust.com/
4. Retained Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods, and the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-britain-nutrition-and-health-claims-nhc-register

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