Will the New Food Labels Do What They Say On the Tin? The Planned Traffic-Light System Is Just One of an Array of New Food Labelling Systems. Will They Transform the Health of Shoppers or Add to the Confusion?

Summary

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STROLLING down aisle one, home of pizzas and ready-made meals, Magteld Darroch is unaware that Sainsbury's has just launched its wheel-of-health labelling system. The bright logo gives a breakdown of fat, salt, sugar and calories and each corresponding wedge of the wheel is "traffic light" coded in either green, amber or red. A red fat reading, for instance, would mean exercise caution.

Darroch, shopping with her four-month-old son, Adam, in a Glasgow branch, thinks some consumers might find it helpful. "It seems easy to understand, " she says. "The labels are mainly on the pre- packaged food, so they're probably for people who don't cook for themselves or are on diets. But I don't take much notice of labels. I like to judge for myself and go for fresh produce most of the time."

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Will the New Food Labels Do What They Say On the Tin? The Planned Traffic-Light System Is Just One of an Array of New Food Labelling Systems. Will They Transform the Health of Shoppers or Add to the Confusion?

There may be marked disinterest among some consumers, but the debate over health-conscious labelling has preoccupied the industry, government health policy and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for several years. It began with a simple aim: to make an increasingly obese population aware of the health benefits of the food it consumes, which became especially important after research showed many people didn't understand the conventional "nutritional information" panels foun...

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