Supporters of FSA's approach to signpost labelling

Tuesday 3 July 2007

A large number of consumer, health, medical and other groups support the FSA's recommended approach to signpost labelling. The signposting supporters range from Netmums to the Royal College of Physicians.

British Dietetic Association – Pauline Douglas, Honorary Chair
The BDA recognises the need for consumers to have access to information to assist them in making informed decisions about the foods they eat. It is important that one clear front-of-pack scheme is adopted by food manufacturers to enable consumers to make choices with confidence. The traffic light approach is supported by independent research indicating that consumers find it easy to use and of practical assistance in making food purchasing choices. We recognise the need to ensure public health measures address health inequalities, and the traffic light approach was most easily understood and interpreted by those in lower socio economic groups where health inequalities are most marked. Front of pack labelling can be complemented by further, more-detailed food labelling on the back of pack.

We support the Agency's plans for independent research into the effect of front of pack schemes have on the behaviours of consumers. www.bda.uk.com

British Heart Foundation – Peter Hollins, Director General
The BHF supports the FSA's approach to front of pack signpost labelling as it offers instant help to shoppers at the point of sale. We think it is important this information is provided in an easily understood, colour coded format, and from an independent source people can trust, such as the FSA. www.bhf.org

British Medical Association – Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chair
Obesity contributes to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis and some cancers, and costs the NHS millions. With Childhood obesity rates soaring in the UK it is essential for tough action to reverse this trend. Helping people to make healthy food choices is a positive step in tackling obesity and the BMA is backing the FSA’s traffic-light food labelling scheme. Improved, consistent labelling will help customers buy healthy food and will help them follow their doctors’ advice about making changes to their diet. www.bma.org.uk

Cancer Research UK – Richard Davidson, Director of Policy and Public Affairs
Research suggests that about a quarter of all cancer deaths are caused by unhealthy diets and obesity.

We know that clear and accurate food labelling can help people to make healthy dietary choices more easily. We support the Food Standards Agency’s front-of-pack traffic light labelling scheme and welcome its adoption by a number of retailers and manufacturers. www.cancerresearchuk.org

Chief Medical Officer Scotland – Dr Harry Burns
Retailers and manufacturers have a key role to play in helping consumers make healthier choices. We know from research that people often find it hard to understand and interpret information on products and that use of 'traffic light' colours helps shoppers make healthier choices. I, therefore, welcome the Food Standards Agency's traffic light scheme as a significant step forward and would encourage retailers and manufacturers to consider how they might adopt the scheme.

Diabetes UK – Douglas Smallwood, Chief Executive
It is vital that people with diabetes and those seeking to reduce the risk of developing the condition get information about foods to help make the right choices about what to eat. The FSA has undertaken a long period of research and consultation to get a scheme that will be effective. However, voluntary labelling will only work if manufacturers adhere to these guidelines. Providing information in different formats is likely to be little better than giving no information at all, so it's really important that the food industry is consistent. www.diabetes.org.uk

Faculty of Public Health – Professor Alan Maryon-Davis
The whole point of front-of-pack nutrition labelling is that it should be simple enough to help busy shoppers make instant choices about healthier options. Only the traffic light scheme fits the bill. The rival GDA scheme is too complicated, less practical and applies only to the theoretical ‘average adult’. www.fph.org.uk

National Federation of Women's Institutes – Fay Mansell, Chair
We have long campaigned for food labelling that is consistent, clear and informative to help consumers make healthier choices and we strongly support clear nutritional labelling on the front of food packs. Research shows that the FSA's traffic light colour-coded approach is the format most easily understood by consumers, allowing them to make healthy choices quickly. www.womens-institute.co.uk

National Consumer Council – Jillian Pitt, Senior Policy Advocate
NCC's research confirms that consumers are trying to adopt healthier lifestyles and want a standard, colour-coded, at-a-glance front-of-pack labelling system to help them make quick, informed decisions before they buy. The FSA's traffic light labelling scheme does just does that. www.ncc.org.uk

National Heart Forum – Paul Lincoln, Chief Executive
We know that consumers want a single, authoritative nutritional labelling scheme they can rely on whatever the brand and wherever they shop. The FSA traffic-light based scheme will help busy people choose at-a-glance between foods that are high in fat, sugar or salt and healthier alternatives. www.heartforum.org.uk

Netmums – Cathy Court, Director of Food and Nutrition
Netmums' research has shown that parents want clear, honest labelling to help them choose healthy food for their families. The FSA's traffic light approach provides exactly that - good, clear, 'at a glance' nutritional information that consumers can use to good effect and with very little effort. Simple colour-coding on the front of packaging helps parents to understand the choices they are making for themselves and their children. The FSA is to be congratulated on providing something that really works for busy parents. Netmums looks forward to seeing the scheme adopted by all supermarkets and food manufacturers. www.netmums.com

Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke – Andrew Dougal OBE, Chief Executive
Research has shown that the traffic light system is most easily understood by the general public. In order to empower customers to make informed choices such a system should be provided by all manufacturers. It is only in this way we can support people in making choices for a healthy lifestyle. www.nichsa.com

North West Regional Director of Public Health – Dr Ruth Hussey, OBE
Healthy diets are a key factor in healthy lifestyles, and can contribute to better health by helping to reduce coronary heart disease, cancers, obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. The need to improve health and well-being through better food and nutrition has never been more compelling and we should use every opportunity to support healthier food choices and we continue to promote traffic light labelling as the preferred system to provide clear and at-a-glance nutritional information for consumers at point of sale.

Royal College of General Practitioners – Dr Graham Archard, Vice Chair
The Royal College of General Practitioners strongly supports this easily understandable and useable tool to identify which foods constitute 'healthy choices'. Too much in the past it has been left to the consumer to analyse numeric data to make choices in foods purchased and this can be very difficult. A visual scale such as the traffic light system gives everybody the ability to make informed choices about their diet in a very simple way.

The College would very much endorse this project and would encourage all food producers to adopt the traffic light system and all consumers to use it to improve healthy dietary choice. www.rcgp.org.uk

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – Dr Patricia Hamilton, President
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health endorses the use of the traffic light system of food labelling that has been introduced by the Food Standards Agency.

Inappropriate diets in early life can establish preferences for unhealthy diets, and lay the foundations for ill health such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes mellitus, in later life. It is important that those who care for, and provide food for children have a clear and unambiguous means of distinguishing healthy and unhealthy foods.

The traffic light system is based on recommendations for the nutrition of adults, thus it does not apply to foods designed for infants and children under three. However, it applies to household foods and its profiling of these is a simple and effective way to inform the choice of foods generally for children of all ages.

A labelling system that is clear and consistent is welcome. The system is valuable in that it enables health professionals to have a single uncomplicated message when they advise on healthy eating at all ages. Furthermore, once children have learnt the traffic light system they will be able to use it into adult life. The College therefore sees the traffic light system of food labelling as an important strategic measure to enable carers to select healthy foods and to encourage healthy eating in children thereby increasing their chances of a long and healthy life.

Royal College of Physicians – Professor Ian Gilmore, President
Obesity and unhealthy eating are a real and serious threat to the health of individuals and the Nation. The complex nature of this threat requires a clear and coherent strategy. The Royal College of Physicians welcomes the FSA's approach to front of pack labelling as a most necessary and practical element of such a strategy. We are impressed by the results of consumer research undertaken by the FSA, which indicated that traffic light colours are key to helping consumers make healthier choices. Traffic lights will also undoubtedly assist health professionals when providing advice about healthier lifestyles. www.rcplondon.ac.uk

The Office of the Children's Commissioner – Professor Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, Children's Commissioner for England
The Food Standard Agency's Traffic Light System delivers what consumers need: a simple method to explain what's contained in the foods they buy. This system would give shoppers more choice to make healthier purchases and has the potential to reduce obesity among our children and young people. We hope it will be used at the forefront of initiatives to limit young people's exposure to foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar. www.childrenscommissioner.org

The Stroke Association – Joe Korner, Director of Communications
The food we eat can have a big influence on our risk of having a stroke. There is clear evidence to suggest that eating five pieces of fruit or vegetables a day significantly reduces your risk of stroke. A healthy diet can help to prevent high blood pressure – the biggest single risk factor for stroke. The Stroke Association has long campaigned for food labelling to be clear and consistent on all food products. We feel the Food Standards Agency's front of pack traffic light labelling scheme provides the best way to achieve this and strongly encourage all manufacturers and retailers to support it. www.stroke.org.uk

UK Public Health Association – Angela Mawle, Chief Executive
The UKPHA is in total support of the traffic light food labelling scheme developed and recommended by the FSA. We consider that the clarity and immediacy of the information will be a real incentive to consumers to make informed healthy choices while shopping for food. We are particularly conscious that an across-the-board easily recognisable scheme such as this will ensure that those least able to pore over labels will have the help that that they need to choose healthier food. We greatly regret that certain leading supermarkets and food companies are bypassing this preferred scheme and pursuing an alternative scheme that is both less effective and less transparent. www.ukpha.org.uk

Which? – Sue Davies, Chief Policy Adviser
The FSA's colour-coded front of pack signposting model is the best way of helping busy consumers make healthy choices. At last consumers looking for a balanced diet won't have to spend hours in the supermarket deciphering labels In order to give people looking for healthier options the best chance food companies across the UK must adopt the FSA model. www.which.co.uk