10 arguments

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"In the long term, traffic light labels would actually be harmful to health: A diet of only ‘green light’ products would be an unhealthy diet."

The argument: A diet consisting exclusively of foods low in fat, sugars and salt is not a balanced diet. In this sense, traffic light labels actually pose a health risk because people who are older, underweight or anorexic may choose the wrong foods.

The truth: What the food industry doesn’t mention in this argumentation against traffic lights is that: 60 percent of the adult popolation and approx. 20 percent of the children and young adults in the EU are overweight ore obese (source EASO). This represents an enormous health problem that effects billions of euros costs in the national health systems every year. One of the main causes of this “obesity epidemic”, as it is being called by experts, is poor nutrition. In this respect, it could not be detrimental to health to inform people about the sugar and fat content of food products so that they are able to identify healthier products if they so choose. Given the millions of European citizens who currently suffer from high blood pressure, information about salt content could also be considered relevant to health.

In light of these considerations, in Germany the public health insurance system has also clearly voiced its support for traffic light labelling, as has the German Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer) and various patients’ organisations as well as the European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP) and the European Confederation of Primary Care Paediatricicans – a step that would be nothing less than absurd if there were any risk of this labelling system causing poor diet and malnutrition.

Traffic light labels do not prescribe a certain diet

Traffic light labels are not the sole source of nutrition information for foods nor do they attempt to prescribe a certain type of diet. These labels simply supply comprehensible nutritional facts that enable health-conscious consumers to limit the amount of sugars, fat and salt in their diets, if they choose to do so. Consumers are not being advised to limit their diets to products with all green lights – and experience with traffic light labels in the UK shows that consumers do not respond in this way. For a balanced diet it is advisable to limit consumption of foods with red lights. Shoppers can use the information provided by traffic light labels to plan their diets according to personal needs: People with high blood pressure can look for products with green lights for salt whereas people who are underweight may look for products with amber or red lights for sugars and fat.

It is simply absurd to call a label that provides factual information about nutritional content a health risk. There is no question, for example, that people with anorexia should be given support. However, deceiving them into buying high-fat or high-sugar products by marketing them as “diet” or “fitness” products is not the support they need.

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