Food labelling Label character

The UK Government has announced that they will be backing a single, front of pack food labelling scheme that includes traffic light colours and guideline daily amounts (GDAs).

Hundreds of you fed into the Government consultation on food labelling to help to ensure that the scheme the Government recommended would help us to quickly and easily understand what's in the food we buy.

The Government announcing their support for a scheme that includes traffic lights is great news for consumers. Currently, there is a confusing multitude of food labels on products across UK shelves. With high levels of diet-related chronic diseases in the UK, including heart disease, clear and consistent food labelling is vital.

Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket announced that it will be introducing a new food labelling scheme that includes traffic lights and all other major supermarkets followed this move. Now we hope many manufactures will also sign up to a single, consistent scheme. 

Why we support traffic light labels

We believe that a traffic light labelling system is key to helping people make informed choices. With an unhealthy diet being a key factor for obesity, traffic light labels provide a clear guide about the level of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt in products that are highly processed, like ready meals. We would like to see labelling each nutrient as either:

  • Redhigh -  enjoy it once in a while
  • Ambermedium - OK most of the time
  • Greenlow - go for it

These labels are supported by independent research from the Food Standards Agency, which found that people prefer clear and consistent front of pack food labelling systems, including traffic lights, GDAs and using terms like high, medium and low.

Take our quiz

Find out why traffic light labels help make healthy choices into easy choices.