After a decade of discussions within the Department of Health (DoH), Public Health Minister Anna Soubry has today (24 October) unveiled a new ‘hybrid’ set of front-of-pack nutritional labels to be used by all major retailers by summer 2013.

Due to EU regulations, the new food labels will be voluntary, although the UK government seems confident that the food industry is ‘on board’.

The DoH claims that under the current system, it is difficult for the consumer to compare food products directly, as supermarkets use different versions of nutritional labels. With this new system, customers will be able to more effectively monitor their intake of sugar, fat, salt and calories, which the DoH hopes will help lead more people to a healthier diet.

According to Soubry, by having a “consistent system” consumers will be able to see “at a glance” what is in the food they’re buying, and help them choose healthier options and control calorie intake.

“Obesity and poor diet cost the NHS billions of pounds every year. Making small changes to our diet can have a big impact on our health and could stop us getting serious illnesses – such as heart disease – later in life”, said Soubry.

Obesity currently costs the NHS around £5 billion every year, with 60 per cent of adults and 30 per cent of children deemed either obese or overweight.

The proposed system, which is the result of a three-month consultation with retailers, manufacturers and ‘other interested parties’, is a combination of guideline daily amounts (GDA), ‘traffic light’ colour coding and ‘high, medium or low’ text indicating levels of fat, salt and sugar in each product.

The nutritional label will always be carried on the front of the packaging so customers will be able to calculate the nutritional content of their diet at a glance.

The news has been welcomed by many health professionals including the Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation Peter Hollins: “This is a quantum leap for public health and the result of tireless work by health campaigners and positive action by our governments.

“It’s now down to each and every retailer and manufacturer to step up and introduce these consistent front of pack food labels.”

Speaking to Resource, Richard Dodd from the British Retail Consortium (the trade association for the British retail industry), said: “This announcement by government today is welcome as the major retailers are overwhelmingly behind a hybrid scheme which takes the best elements of both the traffic light scheme and the guideline daily allowance system.

“A number of retailers have been using differing ways of providing nutritional information to customers in the past but as customer requirements have changed, we’ve seen retailers looking to adopt a more consistent approach… and that clearly will have a positive impact on customers.

“UK retailers have been at the forefront of offering comprehensive nutritional information for years and we’re still massively ahead of anything else going on in Europe” added Dodd.

Over-simplifying nutrition

However, several parts of the food industry have criticised the new label for ‘demonising’ certain food groups.

Farmers, meat producers and dairy companies are criticising the new labels for over-simplifying nutritional content, which could target products high-fat products such as meat and cheese, causing falls in sales.

Speaking out against the new system, the National Farmers’ Union said: “The colour coding approach is over-simplistic, demonises some food groups, can be misinterpreted and cannot reflect reformulation of products to reduce levels of fat, sugar and salt.”

Supermarkets such as Tesco, Morrisons, and Lidl have resisted the idea of ‘unfair’ red food labels in the past, although they have all adopted hybrid label systems since.

Clare Cheney, Director General of the Provisions Trade Federation, claims that the ‘traffic light’ system in particular could put consumers off “lightly processed” meats and cheese, labelling them as junk food when in fact they “form an important part of a healthy balanced diet.”

Despite this, most major UK supermarket chains are already using ‘traffic light’ labels, whilst also showing guideline daily allowances. Last month, Morrisons became the last of the four largest UK supermarkets to agree to print hybrid front-of-pack labelling on their produce.

The DoH will continue talks to determine the new labels’ design at the end of the week.

Read more about the new ‘hybrid’ food labelling system.