Discount retailer Lidl is to introduce traffic-light nutrition labelling on its products in the UK.

Lidl said its decision to move to traffic-lights was based on consumers “increasingly looking for consistency across all food packaging”. The retailer said it will help them make “informed choices” when purchasing their food.

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“Due to customer demand, we will be adopting a hybrid labelling system that will incorporate the existing Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) with the traffic light colour coding system,” it said.

“We welcome any government-led initiative on this subject to ensure uniformity of labelling across all products and across all retailers, and will continue to respond to government-led health initiatives that positively impact on our customers.”

Lidl is the latest in a line of UK retailers adopting the traffic-light labelling system. 

Aldi introduced the model this week, and Tesco, previously a supporter of the GDA system, last month announced plans to add traffic-light labels to the nutritional information it puts on products.

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Tesco’s move was announced days after the UK government finished consulting on ways to introduce more consistent front-of-pack labelling on food.

Nutritional labelling has long been a topic of fierce debate in the UK, with some manufacturers and retailers backing a GDA system and others favouring “traffic lights” or a combination approach.

The GDA approach, where each nutrient is calibrated in terms of the percentage of a recommended daily intake, is a more detailed approach though its opponents suggest that it can confuse consumers.

The traffic lights system has the advantage of clarity and simplicity but is accused by its critics of being a blunt instrument.

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