Agency welcomes publication of final front-of-pack labelling report

Wednesday 6 May 2009

The Agency welcomes the final report on front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition signpost labelling, published today by an independent group of experts (the Project Management Panel).

The report is the culmination of nearly 18 months of independent, robust scientific research on consumer understanding and use of FOP nutrition labelling.

The Agency will now take forward the findings, which show that shoppers would benefit from a single FOP scheme that includes the words ‘high, medium and low’, traffic light colours and percentage of Guideline Daily Amount (GDA).

The need for an effective FOP labelling scheme to help consumers make healthier food choices was reiterated by the Government in its ‘Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives’ strategy. The Government stated that it wants a single labelling approach used by the whole food industry, based on the principles that will be recommended by the FSA in light of the independent evaluation.