People would like simple signposts to help them to make informed and healthier food choices, according to new research from the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA).
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The FSA’s Action Plan on Food Promotions and Children’s Diet, and the Government’s White Paper launched on 16 November both identified signposting as a possible way to help people to make healthier food choices. The FSA said it has developed a number of different signposting options, five of which have been tested with people to find out what they prefer.
“People have told us they want to make healthier food choices and that they would welcome signposting to help them,” said Gill Fine, director of consumer choice and dietary health at the FSA.
“We want to know what people want and what they would find useful. We will therefore test out the options in shops and work with stakeholders to do this. We need to ensure that what we recommend will be useful and workable,” Fine added.
The options included a ‘Simple Traffic Light’ system, which might be depicted as red, amber or green, an ‘Extended Traffic Light’ system, which might include red, red/amber, amber, amber/green or green, and a symbol appearing only on healthier options. All three grouped the main nutrients together.

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By GlobalDataThe other two options showed separate key nutrient information for the total fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. The ‘Multiple Traffic Light’ system would have separate traffic lights for high, medium or low levels for each of the key nutrients, while the other option was displaying Guideline Daily Amounts for men and women and the amounts of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar per portion.
The two preferred signposts were the ‘Simple Traffic Light’ and the ‘Multiple Traffic Light’ systems. The FSA will now test all the options in shops, working with the food industry, and plans to complete this work during summer 2005.