Jack: I’ve still got loads to do for our report on nutritional food labels.

杰克：我们关于营养食品标签的报告还有很多事要做。

Alice: Me too. What did you learn from doing the project about your own shopping habits?

爱丽丝：我也是。你从你那个购物习惯的课题学到了什么呢？

Jack: Well, I’ve always had to check labels for traces of peanuts in everything I eat because of my allergy. But beyond that I’ve never really been concerned enough to check how healthy a product is.

杰克：恩，因为我的过敏症，所以一直要检查我吃的每个东西的标签是否含有花生。但除此之外，我从未真正关心过一个产品有多健康。

Alice: This project has actually taught me to read the labels much more carefully. I tended to believe claims on packaging like ‘low in fat’.

爱丽丝：这个课题实际上教会了我更仔细地阅读标签。我以前倾向于相信包装，比如 ‘脂肪很低’。

But I now realise that the ‘healthy’ yoghurt I’ve bought for years is full of sugar and that it’s actually quite high in calories.

但我现在意识到，我多年来买的 ‘健康’ 酸奶含有大量的糖分，而且实际上卡路里含量很高。

Jack: Ready meals are the worst ... comparing the labels on supermarket pizzas was a real eye-opener. Did you have any idea how many calories they contain? I was amazed.

杰克：熟食最糟糕。比较超市比萨饼上的标签真是令人大开眼界。你知道它们含有多少卡路里吗？我真的很震惊。

Alice: Yes, because unless you read the label really carefully, you wouldn’t know that the nutritional values given are for half a pizza.

爱丽丝：是的，因为除非你仔细阅读标签，你不会知道给你的营养价值是半个比萨饼。

Jack: When most people eat the whole pizza. Not exactly transparent is it?

杰克：大多数人都会吃掉整个披萨。很显而易见不是吗?

Alice: Not at all. But I expect it won’t stop you from buying pizza?

爱丽丝：并不是。但我想这并不会阻止你继续购买披萨吧？

Jack: Probably not, no! I thought comparing the different labelling systems used by food manufacturers was interesting. I think the kind of labelling system used makes a big difference.

杰克：当然不会啦，绝不！我觉得比较食物生产商使用的不同标签系统非常有趣。我觉得使用的标签系统的类型有很大不同。

Alice: Which one did you prefer?

爱丽丝：你喜欢哪一个呢？

Jack: I liked the traditional daily value system best - the one which tells you what proportion of your required daily intake of each ingredient the product contains.

杰克：我最喜欢传统的日常价值体系。它告诉你产品中每种成分在你每日所需摄入量中所占的比例。

I’m not sure it’s the easiest for people to use but at least you get the full story. I like to know all the ingredients in a product - not just how much fat, salt and sugar they contain.

我并不确定这是最方便人们使用的，但是至少你会知道所有的东西。我想知道一种产品的所有成分--不仅仅是它们含有多少脂肪、盐和糖。

Alice: But it’s good supermarkets have been making an effort to provide reliable information for customers.

爱丽丝：但是好的超市一直在努力为顾客提供可靠的信息。

Jack: Yes. There just needs to be more consistency between labelling systems used by different supermarkets, in terms of portion sizes, etc.

杰克：是的。不同超市使用的标签系统之间需要有更多的一致性，比如在份量等方面。

Alice: Mmm. The labels on the different brands of chicken flavour crisps were quite revealing too, weren’t they?

爱丽丝：嗯。不同牌子的鸡肉味薯片上的标签也很能说明问题，不是吗？

Jack: Yeah. I don’t understand how they can get away with calling them chicken flavour when they only contain artificial additives.

杰克：是的。我不明白，当它们只含有人工添加剂时，它们怎么能被称为鸡肉味呢？

Alice: I know. I’d at least have expected them to contain a small percentage of real chicken.

爱丽丝：我知道。我至少会期待里面会含有一点点真的鸡肉。

Jack: Absolutely.

杰克：是的。

Alice: I think having nutritional food labeling has been a good idea, don’t you? I think it will change people’s behaviour and stop mothers, in particular, buying the wrong things.

爱丽丝：我认为贴营养食品标签是个好主意，你说呢? 我认为它将改变人们的行为，特别是阻止妈妈们买错误的东西。

Jack: But didn’t that study kind of prove the opposite? People didn’t necessarily stop buying unhealthy products.

杰克：但是这个研究不是证明了相反的结果吗？人们并不一定会停止购买不健康的产品。

Alice: They only said that might be the case. Those findings weren’t that conclusive and it was quite a small-scale study. I think more research has to be done.

爱丽丝：他们只是说可能会那样。这些发现并不是结论性的，这是一个小范围的研究。我想还需要做更多的研究。

Jack: Yes, I think you’re probably right.

杰克：是的，我觉得你可能是对的。

Jack: What do you think of the traffic-light system?

杰克：你觉得交通信号灯系统怎么样？

Alice: I think supermarkets like the idea of having a colour-coded system - red, orange or green - for levels of fat, sugar and salt in a product.

爱丽丝：我认为超市喜欢用颜色编码系统--红色、橙色或绿色--来表示产品中脂肪、糖和盐的含量。

Jack: But it’s not been adopted universally. And not on all products. Why do you suppose that is?

杰克：但它并没有被普遍采用。并不是所有的产品都使用了。你觉得为什么会那样呢？

Alice: Pressure from the food manufacturers. Hardly surprising that some of them are opposed to flagging up how unhealthy their products are.

爱丽丝：来自于食物生产商的压力。毫不奇怪，他们中的一些人反对让大家关注他们的产品有多不健康。

Jack: I’d have thought it would have been compulsory. It seems ridiculous it isn’t.

杰克：我想过让它可以变成强制性的。不是强制性的看起来很荒谬。

Alice: I know. And what I couldn’t get over is the fact that it was brought in without enough consultation - a lot of experts had deep reservations about it.

爱丽丝：我知道。我不能理解的是没有经过足够的商讨，它就被引入使用了。很多专家对此持保留意见。

Jack: That is a bit weird. I suppose there’s an argument for doing the research now when consumers are familiar with this system.

杰克：那是有点奇怪。我觉得做这个研究可能有点争议，因为消费者已经熟悉了这个系统。

Alice: Yeah, maybe.

爱丽丝：恩，可能是吧。

Jack: The participants in the survey were quite positive about the traffic-light system.

杰克：调查里的参与者对交通信号系统表现得非常积极。

Alice: Mmm. But I don’t think they targeted the right people. They should have focused on people with low literacy levels because these labels are designed to be accessible to them.

爱丽丝：恩。但是我觉得他们没有针对正确的人群。他们应该侧重于文化水平不高的人，因为这些标签是为了方便他们而设计的。

Jack: Yeah. But it’s good to get feedback from all socio-economic groups. And there wasn’t much variation in their responses.

杰克：是的。但是如果能从所有的社会经济群体收集反馈是很好的。而且他们的回答差别不大。

Alice: No. But if they hadn’t interviewed participants face-to-face, they could have used a much bigger sample size. I wonder why they chose that method?

爱丽丝：不。但是如果他们没有面对面采访参与者，他们本可以使用更大的样本量。我在想他们为什么选择那种方法？

Jack: Dunno. How were they selected? Did they volunteer or were they approached?

杰克：不知道。参与者是怎么选择的？他们是主动参与还是被动的呢？

Alice: I think they volunteered. The thing that wasn’t stated was how often they bought packaged food - all we know is how frequently they used the supermarket.

爱丽丝：我觉得是他们主动的。不是很明白的一点就是他们多久买一次包装食物，我们所知道的是他们多久去一次超市。