NHF's concerns about Tesco's U-turn on 'traffic-light' signalling on food labels

26 April 2005

National Heart Forum's concerns about Tesco's U-turn on 'traffic-light' signalling on food labels:

Jane Landon, Associate Director of charity the National Heart Forum says: "Tesco's decision appears to make little sense, other than to fall in line with a general resistance from food manufacturers and retailers to a traffic light labelling system which current exploratory research by the Food Standards Agency shows is popular with consumers."

"Instead of using its phenomenal marketing abilities to 'promote' the traffic light labels to its customers, Tesco is opting for a numbers-based system of the sort which the FSA research shows to be least popular with consumers."

The National Heart Forum supports the development of a single clear system of nutrition labelling that would help consumers to decide realistically how often they can eat foods which are high in fat, sugar and salt within an overall healthy diet.

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