General Chat

Very welcome indeed

A new consistent system of front-of-pack food labelling is to be introduced in the UK, the government says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22959239

I read that it is being introduced here in Australia but it doesn't really mean much at the moment because it isn't compulsory. However it's a good start.

Good that all major retailers have got together and signed up. They will make their manufacturers comply.

Shame that none of discounters (Lidl, Aldi, etc) have signed up. Nor M&S by the look of it. So much easier if everyone signed up to this. If you are a producer of food for, say, JS, M&S and Lidl, you have to have a package designer who has to produce 3 ways of presenting the same nutritional information :-(

Because of my OH health issues we check all labels on any tinned or packet foods we buy, not a huge amount as we prefer fresh products.

Having looked at the article, I can't see any difference between what we have now and the proposed new one :-S

I think big difference will be that info will be in same order - calories, good fats, bad fats, salt, sugar etc. And it will be colour coded.

You will see at a glance how green or red the trolley is in front. And you can tut-tut or nod approvingly at the person in front in the queue. Make a change from discussing weather.

One of the big problems in bringing this initiative forward is Europe. They have their own ideas of food nutrition labelling and, of course, a huge amount of food now is manufactured in one place and then exported all over the EU.

Cadbury's are one big manufacturer who have not joined in yet. But I doubt they will score many greens for their products.:-)