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Food Standards Agency must show leadership in traffic-light food labelling

08 March 2006

At its Board meeting tomorrow (Thursday 9 March), the Food Standards Agency is expected to recommend a 'traffic light' nutritional labelling system which highlights fat, sugar and salt levels for processed foods such as meat pies, burgers and breakfast cereals. The signposting system will enable consumers to decide realistically how often they can eat these foods within an overall healthy diet.

Commenting on the forthcoming meeting, Paul Lincoln, chief executive of the National Heart Forum said:

"This is tremendous opportunity for the Food Standards Agency to show leadership in consumer protection by providing clear, consistent, evidence-based information on the front of food packages - where it is most needed - whatever the brand, wherever it is sold.

"The diets of British adults and children are dominated by processed foods which are high in fat, sugar and salt and the consequences in terms of diet-related illness, including rising obesity rates are catastrophic. Research by the FSA and by individual retailers has clearly demonstrated that signpost labels do encourage people to eat more healthy food choices. Better labelling on food products which contribute significantly to poor dietary patterns is one of a number of important steps we have to take to reverse current trends."

Under the current proposals, consumers will only benefit from this ground-breaking scheme if manufacturers and retailers agree to provide the information on their products. Mr Lincoln said that he is sceptical that large parts of the food industry will alter its opposition to signpost labelling and added:

"If, when the scheme gets the go-ahead, manufacturers refuse to label their foods, the government should step in on behalf of the consumer and make the scheme mandatory. In the meantime, consumers faced with unlabelled products should ask themselves; what have they got to hide?"

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