UK: All major retailers back new labelling scheme

The national recommendation being launched today this week by all four UK governments is a uniform system for showing how much fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar and calories are in food products, building on existing labelling which retailers have developed over the last few years. Members of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) have led the way in signing up and worked closely with the Government on
presentational aspects of the new labelling guidelines, including colours, format and font sizes.

All the major food retailers have signed up to the scheme, which combines traffic light colour-coding and nutritional information to help people make informed choices when doing their food shopping.

Andrew Opie, BRC Director of Food and Sustainability, said: "This is great news for consumers. A consistent scheme across all the major supermarkets means wherever we shop we will see the same front of pack labelling. That will help improve understanding of the label and make healthier choices easier."

"UK retailers have led the way on developing clear and consistent front of pack labelling over the last few years and we are delighted to see that such an important project is today getting the green light."

Plans to tackle UK obesity by introducing a standardised traffic-light food labelling system have been dealt a blow after Cadbury and Coca-Cola failed to sign up to the scheme.

All the major supermarkets - Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, the Co-operative, Waitrose and Tesco - have announced that they will use the label on their products, alongside Mars UK, Nestle UK, PepsiCo UK, Premier Foods and McCain Foods, but the fact retailers and manufacturers have to voluntarily sign-up means only around 60 per cent of food products are likely to carry the labelling.

The label combines traffic light colour-coding and nutritional information in the new form of “Reference Intakes” in place of GDAs to show how much of the maximum daily intake of fat, saturated fat, salt, sugar and calories is in a 100g portion.

It follows research that found consumers are confused when more than one scheme is used, which in turn reduces their ability and inclination to use the information.

Public Health Minister Anna Soubry said: “The UK already has the largest number of products using a front of pack label in Europe but we know that people get confused by the variety of labels that are used."

”Research shows that, of all the current schemes, people like this label the most and they can use the information to make healthier choices."

“We all have a responsibility to tackle the challenge of obesity, including the food industry. By having all major retailers and manufacturers signed up to the consistent label, we will all be able to see at a glance what is in our food. This is why I want to see more manufacturers signing up and using the label.”