FSA opts for traffic lights

A colour-coded system for food is the best way for consumers to pick healthy options, said the Food Standards Agency.

The Food Standards Agency consulted over 2,600 people on four possible front-of-pack schemes.

The Multiple Traffic Light, which shows at a glance if food has high, medium or low levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt, came out top for ease of use.

A 12 week public consultation will now decide if this option should be adopted voluntarily by food manufacturers.

Ministers want to introduce the food alerts by 2006, after first proposing the idea in the Public Health White Paper last year.

The public will now be asked to decide whether Multiple Traffic Lights are preferable to a second choice - the Colour Guideline Daily Amount (CGDA), which shows the nutritional content of foods in both figures and colours.

Although CGDA this was the most popular with the consumers polled, a third of respondents from lower socio-economic and ethnic minorities groups were unable to use it to identify whether a food had high, medium or low levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.

Further research confirmed that many people could not apply the information the CGDA contained to the food choices they actually made.

The option of Simple Traffic Lights, where green means a healthy food that should be eaten often, amber an "OK" choice, and red a less healthy choice that should only be eaten sparingly, was not liked and felt to be too basic.

The FSA said it was therefore considering proposing the Multiple Traffic Light for the front-of-pack scheme.

But added that, because CGDAs were also well liked, it was inviting views on that option as well.

The FSA proposes that the front-of-pack labelling scheme should appear initially on foods such as ready meals, pies and pizzas which people eat regularly, and find most difficult to assess nutritionally.

Deirdre Hutton, chair of the Food Standards Agency said: "Consumers have told us that they would like to make healthier choices but find the current information confusing.

"After carrying out rigorous and comprehensive research, we now have the makings of a system that will make it quicker and easier for people to do so."