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Food Manufacturers Reject FSA's Traffic Light Labelling Scheme

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

The Food Standards Agency's (FSA) attempt to introduce consistent health labelling of processed foods has been dealt a significant blow as leading manufacturers and Tesco have announced they will reject its recommended traffic light system. The FSA chose the traffic light system, which colours key nutrients in red, amber, or green, as the most useful to consumers after conducting extensive research on the labels. However, top food manufacturers like PepsiCo, Danone, Kraft, Nestle, and Kellogg's have pre-empted the decision by announcing their own scheme based on guideline daily amounts (GDAs), which avoids colour-coding foods. Tesco has also adopted a GDA system, giving figures for the percentage of a notional guideline daily intake of fat, salt, and sugar.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has chosen the traffic light system for labelling key nutrients as the most useful to consumers.
  • The system colours key nutrients in red, amber, or green, but five top food manufacturers, including PepsiCo, Danone, Kraft, Nestle, and Kellogg's, have announced they will reject this scheme in favour of their own guideline daily amounts (GDAs) labels.
  • Tesco has also adopted a GDA system, avoiding colour-coding and providing figures for the percentage of a notional guideline daily intake of fat, salt, and sugar.
  • Only Waitrose, Sainsbury's, and Asda have signed up to the main points of the FSA scheme.
  • The FSA's labelling system aims to help people make healthy choices, as stated by Deirdre Hutton, chairwoman of the FSA.
  • Susie Orbach highlights the importance of traffic light colours in understanding and using labels.

Statistics:

  • The FSA conducted extensive research on labels.
  • 5 top food manufacturers (PepsiCo, Danone, Kraft, Nestle, and Kellogg's) have rejected the traffic light system in favour of GDAs.
  • 3 supermarkets (Waitrose, Sainsbury's, and Asda) have signed up to the FSA's scheme.
  • Tesco has introduced a GDA system, providing figures for the percentage of a notional guideline daily intake of fat, salt, and sugar.

Sources:

  • "Food labelling: the great debate on colourful signs" by Felicity Lawrence and Gabriella Jozwiak, The Observer
  • "Food manufacturers reject food labelling plans" by Susie Orbach, guardian.co.uk/food
  • "Guidance on implementing the EU nutrition and health claims regulation" by the European Food Safety Authority

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