National Heart Forum comments on consumer surveys on food labels

27 February 2007

Commenting on two separate surveys published today (Tuesday 27 February) by Netmums and by the GDA campaign, Jane Landon, deputy chief executive of the National Heart Forum said:

"One system of clear, simple nutritional labelling is crucial to help people make healthier choices in what they eat, wherever they shop. Nutrition labels must be quick and easy to use while people are shopping and it is no surprise that the survey of 17,000 parents confirms that traffic light labels work best for busy mums." [2]

"The food industry GDA campaign survey results show that people welcome more information on food packaging, but research by the National Heart Forum [1] shows that labels using percentage Guideline Daily Amounts are too complex and even misleading. It is vital that nutrition labels do not widen dietary inequalities by being useful only to the most nutritionally and numerically literate consumers. Companies should heed the overwhelming call of mums, health and consumer organisations and the government's own Food Standards Agency and adopt traffic light labels."

Notes to editors

Misconceptions and misinformation: the problems with Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) was published by the National Heart Forum on 15 February and is available as a pdf download (1.15MB) here. The report is written by Dr Tim Lobstein, Jane Landon and Paul Lincoln.
Results of the Netmums survey are available at: www.netmums.com/cpg/food/foodsurveyreport.pdf
Information about the Food Standards Agency's traffic light labelling is available at http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/