Government says it has agreement from food industry for consistent labels showing fat, salt, sugar and calorie content.
The Government says a consistent system of labelling will be introduced on food packaging next year.
The exact design of the labels hasn’t yet been finalised but the proposed system will highlight guideline daily amounts, with colour coding and high/medium/low text showing the fat, saturated fat, salt, sugar and calorie content of food.
Although the system will be voluntary, Government ministers say the food industry is finally backing them after years of talks.
It has to be a voluntary system, as to make it compulsory would require Europe-wide legislation.
Some retailers – including Asda, the Co-op, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose – have already introduced traffic light and/or text highlighting the amount of salt, sugar and fat content in their foods.
Public Health Minister Anna Soubry said: “The UK already has the largest number of products with front of pack labels in Europe but research has shown that consumers get confused by the wide variety of labels used.”
The new labels are expected to be launched by next summer.
What do you think of the labels? Will they help us eat more healthily? Let us know in the Comments section below.
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Best-before labels must be abolished!