The UK Government has launched a consultation with food manufacturers, supermarkets and health experts on how best to label nutritional content in food.
The consultation, which will run to 6 August, aims to encourage all UK food businesses to use a uniformed labelling system. It is designed to make choosing healthier foods “easier” by showing consumers how much fat, salt, sugar and calories are in their products on front-of-pack, the Department of Health said today (14 May).
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Current formats include the ‘traffic light’ colour-coded system through which the least healthy foods are labelled red and the most healthy are in green, and Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs), which offer a percentage of recommended intake.
However, while around 80% of food products sold in the UK already have some form of front-of-pack-labelling, different retailers and manufacturers use different labelling systems, which can be “confusing” for consumers, the department said.
Some use labels showing Guideline Daily Amount (%GDA), which are guidelines about the approximate amount of particular nutrients and calories required for a healthy diet, some use traffic light colour coding that highlights high fat sugar and salt content, and some use both.
“Being overweight and having an unhealthy diet can lead to serious illnesses such as cancer and type 2 diabetes. We must do everything we can to help people make healthier choices,” Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said.
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By GlobalData“Offering a single nutrition labelling system makes common sense, it would help us all to make healthier choices and keep track of what we eat.”
The 12-week consultation period will begin next week and all participating parties will be asked to give their view on what a universal labelling scheme would look like.
