Finally a traffic light front of pack system is launched today, combined with the new Reference Intake percentages replacing the previous Guideline Daily Amount. They will be front of pack and color coded so it’s easy to read at a glance. They are also uniform across manufacturers so consumers can become familiar with the label.
The aim – to make it easy to understand what is in their food so informed choices can be made with the final aim of improving health.
There are new colour bandings in place, with green, amber and red for low, medium and high levels of key nutrients in a portion – slightly amended from previous banding.
60% of the UK food manufacturers, including many companies who have brands that will come up with ‘red’ labels on the traffic light have committed to the voluntary scheme.
Remember if a food is red, this does not automatically mean it can not be part of your healthy diet as some foods are naturally high in sugar or fat, such as dried fruit or nuts. So you will still need to use common sense when choosing foods and consider portion size too.
In general it is a good step forward which I believe should be mandatory across all labels, as a familiar label means we will know exactly where to look and what we are looking for.
Post time: Jun-13-2017