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Green For Go
By WLR Dietitian
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After months of research and discussion, the Food Standards
Agency (FSA) has finally agreed on a ‘traffic light’ system for
supermarkets and manufacturers to include on the front of food
packaging to help their customers choose a healthier diet.
The scheme includes information for fat, saturates, sugar and
salt and uses red, amber and green colour codes to indicate
whether levels of these nutrients are high, medium or low,
respectively. Just like traffic lights, green means go, amber
means OK and red means stop and think before you eat too much of
this. Information on the levels of nutrients per portion should
also be given.
Currently, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have introduced the
colour codes on some of their products, with Asda following hot
on their heels.
WLR says:
Unfortunately, this scheme is voluntary and manufacturers are
not legally obliged to use it. This means the very products that
need to be labelled – in other words, those that are high in
fat, saturates, sugar and/or salt – are most likely to be the
ones that fail to use it. After all, it’s unlikely many people
would frequently buy a product that includes red ratings for
most or all of the listed nutrients?
Furthermore, for the system to work effectively, it’s
essential that supermarkets and manufacturers use the same
criteria as detailed by the FSA to determine whether a nutrient
receives a green, amber or red rating.
Unfortunately, there seem to be some initial teething
problems with this – Waitrose are currently using different
criteria from those recommended by the FSA to identify whether
sugars receive a red or amber rating. Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s
seem to be reluctant to reveal the criteria they are using,
indicating that perhaps they might not be in line with the FSA’s
recommendations.
In the meantime, there are no guidelines for including
calories as part of the traffic light labelling. This is
surprising considering overweight and obesity is such a major
problem in the UK. Fortunately, Waitrose has chosen to include
calorie information as part of the chart and Sainsbury’s has
gone one step further and given calories a red, amber or green
rating based on a typical portion size. This effectively means,
for example, that 180 calories for a croissant might receive a
red rating, but 180 calories for a ready meal might receive a
green rating.
Ultimately, the colour coding system has the potential to be
a useful tool for helping customers to quickly identify whether
a product they are buying is healthy. However, it’s essential
that all manufacturers and supermarkets use the same nutritional
criteria and use the traffic light system on all their products
– not just those that are likely to fair well. And finally,
remember, if you’re trying to lose weight you’ll still need to
work out the number of calories in a serving.
For more information about the Food Standards Agency:
www.food.gov.uk |
