Government must ‘take the bull by the horns’ and act on food labelling

The Government must tackle our confusing collection of food labels, now it has brought responsibility for them in-house, we say.

Ministers at the Department for Health have announced they are taking on responsibility for researching and promoting the labels that appear on our food.

The Food Standards Agency, previously responsible for producing guidance on food labelling, will focus on core food safety issues.

Our Chief Executive, Peter Hollins, said: “The Government must follow through with this reorganisation, by recognising its responsibilities in relation to food labels now it has brought the issue in-house.

“The FSA did much to promote healthy diets and now the Government must demonstrate it will not let the good things the FSA achieved disappear into a black hole.

“Regardless of the European jurisdiction issues, the Government should recognise it has an opportunity to put the health of the UK population first and continue battling for traffic light colours on food labels.

“The FSA did a lot of research with consumers and recommended front-of-pack labels including traffic light colours, which it found provided the best information on nutritional content.

“Now ministers are directly responsible for food labels, they should be brave and listen to health concerns rather than just voices from industry.

“Adding a simple traffic light system will give shoppers a head-start in making healthy choices and give food firms a nudge to make their products healthier too.”

Food labelling is subject to EU controls. However, individual country governments can help shape the rules.

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