A hybrid system would suggest a fair regulation that all manufacturers and retailers will have to adhere to, but is this possible in an industry where such diversity and complexities exist when it comes to nutrition, and what is/can be classed as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ for our health?
On the surface, it sounds like a fair and simple system that allows for clear differentiation between a product that may be high in fat (represented by the colour red in the traffic light labelling system) and a low-fat product that would clearly be marked with the colour green. It is suggested that this will stand out clearly on-shelf and avoid consumer confusion when it comes to health-savvy food selection.
Although I admire this bold move to make unhealthier products more transparent to innocent consumers, I have reservations that all involved will get a fair deal. Take the dairy sector, for example. Cheese is a product that contains medium-to-high levels of saturated fat – a food component that regularly receives negative media attention. However, when eaten in moderation, cheese is a highly nutritious product that’s high in protein and calcium, making it a nutritious part of a healthy and balanced diet.
Similar principles apply to milk and yogurt, all of which appear on ‘The Eat Well Plate’, a tool provided by the UK government to illustrate a healthy diet. When the new system is implemented, the labelling that will appear on dairy products will mirror the labelling on other high-fat products such as sausage rolls, crisps and biscuits, all of which can arguably be described as ‘junk food’ due to the little or no nutritional benefits they provide.
Minister of state for agriculture and food, David Heath, has said: “We fought long and hard in Europe for more honest labelling so that people can make up their own minds about what they eat.”
Consumers need protection from misleading nutritional information and marketing tools that cause confusion. However, our dairy industry also needs protection.
I’m not sure of the solution to this problem. However, I have always maintained that perhaps consumers need to take more responsibility for their food choices by educating themselves to better understand the nutritional information that already must be provided by law: the ingredients list. That said, we then rely on that information being offered honestly and completely.
So, although the new attempt to provide a consistent system for nutritional labelling has essentially got the green light, in this case perhaps ‘hybrid’ represents fairness for some, rather than all.
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