Which? hopes green light on FSA advertising will help tackle healthy eating

Ready meals, pies and pizzas are just some of the complex food products consumers find confusing when trying to make healthier choices. With extensive consumer research by Which? * and the FSA**showing that traffic light labelling is the simplest way to interpret a product’s nutritional value, the consumer charity hopes new advertising to be launched on Monday 14 January will remind shoppers just how effective the scheme is in improving their diet.

Steady pressure to adopt traffic lights labelling on UK retailers and manufacturers has started to pay off; so far eight retailers, 16 manufacturers and four service providers*** have adopted the scheme. Which? hopes the advertising campaign - to be featured on TV, magazines and buses - will encourage others to do the same.

Going to the supermarket should not be a daunting task for people who simply want to eat healthily. Which? believes retailers and manufacturers rejecting the more user-friendly traffic lights on their labels are making it harder for their customers****.

Sue Davies, Chief Policy Adviser, Which? says:

“At this time of year, when everyone is making resolutions to eat healthily, it’s the job of manufacturers and retailers to make it as easy as possible for them to figure out what the label says. Those who insist on using the GDA system should at least add the traffic light colours to their labels.

“If you are in a store that does not put traffic lights on food products, our handy shopping card can help. Launched last year and available on the Which? website, the card shows fat, sugar and salt levels at a glance, allowing shoppers to make the healthiest choice without confusion.”

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Notes to Editor

*Which? research showed 97 per cent of consumers were able to correctly identify and compare levels of nutrients using the traffic light labelling scheme.

** All the FSA’s consumer research is published in full at www.food.gov.uk/signposting

*** For a full list of manufacturers, retailers and service providers currently using traffic light labelling, see www.eatwell.gov.uk/trafficlights

**** Which? research shows that 50 per cent of shoppers were able to correctly identify the levels of key nutrients in products using the traffic lights scheme compared with only 5 per cent for GDA.

• To download the Which? cut-out-and-keep shopping card, visit www.which.co.uk/shoppingcard
• What do the traffic light colours mean?
  To eat a healthy diet, one of the key things is to cut down on fat (especially saturated fat), salt and added sugars. Food products with traffic light labels on the front of the pack show at-a-glance if the food has high, medium or low amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt. So, if there is a red light on the front of the pack, the food is high in something and should be cut down on. If it’s amber, the food isn't high or low in the nutrient, so this is an OK choice most of the time. Green means the food is low in that nutrient. The more green lights, the healthier the choice.