This section provides supporting information to help organisations from within the food industry health and consumer non governmental organisations or professional bodies and companies working in diet and nutrition to promote and explain to consumers how to use the uk government s recommended front of pack nutrition labelling scheme. More beneficial and less beneficial types of fat sugar and salt. And the system does not distinguish between nutritional quality.
But what it fails to tell you is why it is red. Traffic light labelling is a fantastic tool for giving a consumer an immediate look at whether an item is healthy or unhealthy. In some cases where there isn t much room on the label just energy values will be displayed but the full nutrition information will be available on the back of pack.
Alongside these traffic lights the label generally shows the amount of these nutrients in a portion of the food or drink and the percentage of your reference intake ri a portion of the product provides. Not all packaged food has traffic light labels but calorie information must be included on the back of the pack. When it comes to reading food labels a good rule of thumb is to go for more greens and ambers and cut down on reds.
Food labels also called nutrition labels show how much sugar sat fat and salt are inside what we re buying. Under eu rules traffic light labelling is voluntary so some manufacturers do not. Traffic light labelling is currently voluntary in the uk as is part of a government scheme introduced in 2013.
Outside of the eu the uk could strengthen such labelling to help address our obesity crisis. Some eu countries had blocked the expansion of traffic light labelling which gives consumers a clear view of the fat sugar and salt in food. Leaving the eu has given the uk a major opportunity to improve the nutrition labelling of food.
A consumer group is calling for mandatory traffic light food labelling post brexit after warning that inconsistent information on popular adult breakfast cereals could be misleading. To find out more about food labels including what terms such as light lite and low fat mean and the difference between use by and best before read more about food labelling terms. Labelling terms and food safety.
The traffic light system was initially introduced by the uk government in 2013 but it is currently a voluntary requirement for manufacturers under the under the food information regulation.
Traffic light food labelling uk. The traffic light labelling system will tell you whether a food has high medium or low amounts of fat saturated fat sugars and salt. It will also tell you the number of calories and kilojoules in that particular product. Energy kilojoules kj and calories kcal fat saturates sugar salt.
Energy kilojoules kj and calories kcal fat saturates sugar salt. It will also tell you the number of calories and kilojoules in that particular product. The traffic light labelling system will tell you whether a food has high medium or low amounts of fat saturated fat sugars and salt.
