When you look at items on the shelves of your supermarket, you might have noticed that all the ingredients are now listed, even down to the tiniest amount. This means you can make informed choices about what you are buying and eating. Companies can’t make misleading claims about the nutritional value of foods and the health benefits of them (e.g. “eating this yogurt is guaranteed to make you lose 2 stone”!).

Prices have to be displayed as unit prices (price per kilo or per litre), just like loose fruit and veg, so you can more easily compare prices. So, if you have a 1kg packet of pasta for €1 and a 1.5 kg packet for €1.30, having unit price you can see which is cheaper by the kilo. (It’s the second one!). All these measures arise from EU policies.

And let’s not forget how easy it is to compare prices (and save long queues at the Bureau de Change) when you’re on holidays in the Eurozone.