CALORIE LABELLING PART OF SOLUTION TO OBESITY SAYS FDF

April 6th, 2009

Responding to publication today of the Government’s report on the first year of its obesity strategy, Julian Hunt, Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Director of Communications, said …

“Today’s report rightly acknowledges the ground-breaking work that food and drink manufacturers have undertaken to help consumers lead healthier lives.

“Given the leadership shown by our members to provide clearer nutrition labelling on retail packs, FDF applauds the voluntary efforts of 18 leading caterers to improve the information provided on their menus.

“Today, 80 food companies are voluntarily providing Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) information on the front of about 20,000 food and drink lines sold in supermarkets. We remain convinced that GDA labelling is helping to improve the food literacy of consumers, which is why this labelling system is now being used across Europe.

“As the Food Standards Agency and the Department of Health acknowledge, calorie per portion information has been shown to be particularly useful for consumers. We would agree with Government that universal calorie labelling is a natural starting point in the debate about how we improve the food literacy of consumers. Calorie per portion information is a core element of the GDA labelling system, but is not recommended for use in the so-called traffic light scheme.

“Labelling is one of the ways in which our members are making a real difference for consumers – and it is only part of the solution. Since 2004, for instance, we estimate that our members have changed the recipes of popular brands, worth £15bn at retail, so that they are lower in salt, fat and sugar. In addition, a further £11.5bn worth of products have been launched as ‘lower in’ versions. And our members continue to make real progress with workplace wellbeing schemes that encourage the food industry’s 440,000 employees to lead healthier lives.”

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