FSA announces 'traffic light' food labelling system will not be made compulsory

by Graham Pembrey - 16/03/2010

"Healthy eating campaigners are outraged after the Food Standards Agency has refused to make a ‘traffic lights’ food labelling system compulsory."

Already used on some food products, the traffic lights system uses red, orange and green symbols to give consumers a quick indication of how healthy a product is. Many had hoped that it would become universal. As of this week, however, these hopes are crushed. The FSA has deemed that food manufacturers should be able to devise their own systems for showing people how much salt, sugar and fat, and calories, are contained in foods.

All that this will do, critics argue, is to create greater confusion among shoppers, and allow companies to avoid giving clear, simply presented information about the nutrional content of a product.

Tescos and other food producers have opposed the single label scheme. Meanwhile groups such as Cancer Research, Asda, Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation have strongly backed it. Head of the BHF, Peter Hollins, recently stated: “Food manufacturers shouldn’t be making a profit at the expense of the nation’s health.”

The FSA’s decision to go against these campaigners seems to be a major step back for the organisation. They have previously supported single food labelling as a tool to fight Britain’s growing obesity crisis. In total 61% of adults are deemed to be overweight by the World Health Organisation in their latest data; meanwhile 22% are obese. Meanwhile it is believed that a quarter of the UK’s children are either overweight or obese.

Campaigners argue that drastic action is needed to change people’s eating habits. They say that the FSA seem to be being complacent about the situation by choosing to let food manufacturer’s decide upon their own labelling. On the other hand, supporters of the decision are claiming that it would be too “simplistic” to describe all foods using a single label system.

More Details: http://www.weightworld.co.uk/health-and-diet-news/fsa-announces-traffic-light-labelling-wont-be-compulsory-1453.html