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Action on Salt

CASH congratulates all manufacturers who have signed up to traffic light labelling – and urges those that haven’t to reconsider

Published:

19.06.13

The Department of Health today launched a new front of pack labelling scheme, which will be adopted across the UK. This new system will combine traffic light colour coding with nutritional information making it much easier and quicker for consumers to check whether their food is low in calories, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt and therefore a healthier choice.

This is a great result for UK customers; CASH, along with other health charities, have been campaigning for ten years for the traffic light system to be adopted.

CASH are strong supporters of traffic light labelling and applaud the Department of Health for their efforts in creating a more consistent system that customers can easily use.

“Raised blood pressure is one of the leading causes of death in the UK. Most cases of raised blood pressure are attributed to the excessively high levels of salt in our diet, therefore in order to prevent further unnecessary deaths, we must reduce our salt intake” says CASH nutritionist Sonia Pombo “Helping people understand which foods are high in salt, as well as saturated fat and sugar, is a step in the right direction, and has the potential to encourage a healthier lifestyle. This new system will also inspire some ‘healthy’ competition between food companies; to ensure their products are the healthiest in the market”.

Although this is a voluntary scheme, all the major supermarkets (ASDA, The Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Iceland, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose) have shown their support and signed up to the system, along with the manufacturers including Pepsico, Nestle, Premier Foods and Mars meaning over 60% of foods will be covered. (Click here for the full list).

CASH now call on those that have not already signed up to act fast and adopt the nationally recognised system; as we have to question the commitment to their customer’s health. Without participation from all members of the food industry, we are unlikely to achieve the biggest impact possible.

If you'd like to learn more about traffic light labelling, visit our ' section.

 

 

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