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RETAILERS SQUARE UP IN BATTLE OF THE LABELS
NOTE: This story is the full version of a news report by Dan Jellinek in our March 2007 issue.
The developer of the Food Standards Agency (FSA)’s experimental ‘traffic lights’ labelling scheme to display levels of fat, saturates, sugar and salt has told Scoff! that a rival system of ‘Guideline Daily Allowance’ (GDA) labelling developed by some major retailers is harder for many shoppers to understand.
Dr Mike Rayner, Director of the British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group at Oxford University, developed the traffic lights label scheme which uses green for low content, amber for medium and red for high (see http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/foodlabels/trafficlights/). The scheme was launched in January and has been adopted by a group of major retailers including Asda, M&S, Sainsbury, Waitrose and the Co-op.
The rival GDA scheme is championed by a separate group including Tesco, Morrison and Somerfield.
“It seems intuitively obvious that colour traffic lights would be better,” Dr Rayner told Scoff! “Front of pack labelling needs to be simpler. GDA works for people who are comfortable with working out percentages, which a lot of people aren’t. On the other hand, GDA does give you more information: perhaps you could use both, GDA and colour-coding.”
In any case the UK alone cannot insist on any single labelling system, which would have to be passed as EU law, Rayner says. “The EU is revisiting the issue of food labelling in the summer. They are sure to make nutritional information compulsory – currently voluntary unless a nutritional claim such as ‘low fat’ is made.
“I am hoping they will also do something about front of pack labelling,” Rayner says. “If they do I don’t think it will be traffic light labelling, it is more likely to be GDA, or even simpler, just calories, or % GDA of calories on the front.
“But all the evidence suggests consumers do need more than calorie labelling – you need to see saturated fat and sodium.”
Ultimately, more research is needed into the precise impact on sales of the different types of front of pack labelling, he says.
“For the first time ever, food manufacturers are using these systems, which is encouraging: now research is needed into their effect.
“The FSA and Department of Health are commissioning research, and we’re trying to look at sales, but it relies on obtaining sales data, which retailers are reluctant to provide.
Dr Rayner denied the claim of some opponents of traffic lights labelling that a ‘red light’ on a pack for some of its content such as salt or fat might mean that people stop buying it. “I don’t know if a red light always does mean stop: it does mean stop and think.
“People know already cakes and treats are likely to be high in fat and sugar, so it may not affect behaviour for treats. People may even want to choose the red one for a cake, it might taste better. But it does give you an option to go for an orange dessert.”
* Copyright 2006 Scoff! All rights reserved. For permission to reuse email dan@gastronomail.com .
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