Consumer group Which? has criticised food manufacturers along with Tesco and other major retailers for resisting the Food Standards Agency’s traffic lights food labelling scheme. The diverse labelling initiatives promoted by different retailers leads to consumer confusion and fails to clearly communicate nutritional information, the consumer watchdog said.
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Which? recently conducted a survey of 636 consumers, which found more people understood the FSA’s food labelling system that Tesco’s – 86% of respondents understood the nutrient levels on Tesco packaging while 97% understood the traffic light system. Only 37% understood the supermarket’s colour scheme.
The consumer group maintains that the red, amber and green colour coding proposed under the FSA’s labelling program is the clearest and easiest method of communicating nutritional information. Sue Davies, Which? chief policy adviser, said: “A colour coded scheme is the best way of helping people to make healthier food choices quickly, easily and accurately… The FSA recommendations are flexible enough for all the food industry to adopt. It will help consumers to make more informed choices by showing at a glance whether foods are high, medium or low in fat, sugar or salt…. However, manufacturers and retailers must use the FSA’s nutritional criteria to ensure consumers get consistent information.”
Which? has campaigned for retailers and manufacturers to universally adopt the FSA’s scheme. International food groups such as Nestlé, Kraft and PepsiCo have rejected the scheme in favour of guideline daily amounts. A number of UK retailers, including Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and the Co-Op have adopted the scheme but the UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, uses its own system rather than the one promoted by the FSA.
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