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Traffic lights. Colour your food! 09.06.2010 A staggering 60 percent of all adults in the EU – and 20 percent of school-age children – are either overweight or obese. Millions of people suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension). These are problems that have continued to escalate in the past several years and that are costing healthcare systems billions of euros. This is why, for years now, policy-makers in Europe have been discussing how best to inform consumers about the nutritional content of foods in a transparent and understandable manner. Unmasking high-sugar foods with traffic light labelling
the traffic light scheme proposed by foodwatch
Nutrition labelling has never been mandatory for the vast majority of food products in the EU. However, until consumers know how much sugar, fat and salt food products contain, they will not be able to choose healthy diets and unmask supposedly healthy children’s drinks or alleged “fitness” products that are nothing but high-sugar foods in disguise. Ideally this information should be available at-a-glance. And this is exactly what traffic light labels achieve. For every product the levels of key nutrients (fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt) are given in absolute grams per 100-gram or 100-millilitre reference value – directly on the front of the package. This system makes it easy to compare various products. To help shoppers interpret the nutritional information quickly, each of these four values is marked with one of the traffic light colours: red (for high levels), amber (medium) and green (low). This is as simple as possible and as informative as necessary on a front of package label. Examples: traffic light labels for different products
Counter model from the food industryA few years ago several retail chains in the UK began using traffic light labels. However, the large companies from the food industry joined forces to develop a counter model – the Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) – in order to pull the plug on traffic light labelling. Now they are trying to get this labelling system introduced on the European level. The GDA labels consist of confusing numbers and percentages. These figures can be misleading because they are not based on a 100-gram reference value but on an arbitrary portion size: for example, one half of a frozen pizza or a handful of potato crisps. Products are often made to look healthier by using unrealistically small portion sizes.
Barry wants to lose weight.
Scientific evidence supports traffic light coloursConsumer organisations, medical associations, patients’ groups and health insurance companies find the GDA labelling system misleading and are calling for the introduction of traffic light labelling. In a representative survey conducted for foodwatch by the opinion research institute TNS Emnid in Germany, 69 percent of respondents spoke out in favour of traffic light labelling. Scientific evidence also supports the value of colour-coding with the signal colours red, amber and green. The only comprehensive study ever conducted on food labelling systems in practice was commissioned by the British Food Standards Agency (FSA). This study clearly showed: A combination of colours and descriptive text (high-medium-low) is crucial for the comprehension of nutritional information. Decision in the EUfoodwatch is campaigning for the mandatory, Europe-wide introduction of traffic light labelling, the best system according to all available evidence. If no majority can be found for mandatory traffic light labelling in the EU, then Member States should at least not be prohibited from using traffic light labelling on the national level.
EU Parliament approves new labelling rules – deceptive labels now permitted by lawAfter years of debate on what information consumers in supermarkets should have in future, the European Union Parliament today finally adopted the Food Information Regulation. The upshot: The food industry has come out on top. Not only has the traffic light label been rejected; nutritional labelling on the front of packages is not mandatory. Nor does information need to be provided on the origin of food except for fresh meat, and the minimum font size is 1.2 millimetres. mehr » 
Red, amber and green for understandable informationThe nutritional criteria used by the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) for defining the colours in its traffic light labels is based on comprehensive scientific studies and consultations. This system uses a reference value of 100 grams for food products and 100 millilitres for drinks and classifies levels of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt as low (green), medium (amber) or high (red). mehr »
The industry’s proposal GDA: Numbers and percentsGDA stands for "Guideline Daily Amounts". This type of labelling provides numerical data on the amount of calories, sugars, fat, saturates and salt in a certain portion of food. Percentage figures are provided to tell shoppers how much of the GDA of a nutrient is in a portion of the respective food. mehr » 
GfK study shows: Traffic lights work, GDAs misleadConsumers understand traffic light labels; GDA labels mislead. These conclusions were reached by a foodwatch-commissioned study conducted by the market research institute GfK. According to this study traffic light labels enable consumers to accurately compare products. Whereas, with GDA labelling, a large majority of shoppers were unable to correctly identify the product with the higher sugar content. mehr » 
Scientific evidence supports traffic light coloursThe combination of traffic light colours and text is crucial to the consumer’s ability to understand nutritional information. This was the clear conclusion of the most comprehensive comparative study on consumers’ understanding of various food labelling systems that has been carried out to date. mehr » 
The British are making more health conscious choices with the traffic lightBritish supermarkets have been selling products with traffic light labels since March 2006. Experience shows: Consumers understand traffic light labels – and they understand them quickly and correctly. Shoppers have been using these labels, above all, for choosing between similar products. mehr » |
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