New food labelling: will it be easier to make healthier food choices?

Health problems associated with being overweight cost the NHS more than £5 billion a year. A new food industry labelling system will be rolled out over the next 18 months in an aim to inform the public. It will consist of a combination of colour coding and nutritional information to show how much fat, salt and sugar and how many calories are in each product (based on reference intakes rather than the previous GDA) and will be shown on the front of the product.  Unfortunately it won’t cover the whole food sector, as it is still a voluntary system.

Retailers who have signed up to the new scheme include Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, the Co-operative and Waitrose, which will display the labels on their own brand foods, as well as manufacturers Mars, Nestle, PepsiCo and Premier Foods.

How can you use the new labelling to make healthier food choices?

The new colour coding should help you decide if a food is high in sugar, salt or fat and the calories it contains in relation to the total amounts you need per day.

It is generally accepted that women need 2000 calories per day made up of 45g of protein, 230g of carbs, 70g of fat, 24g of fibre and 6gs of salt. The new labelling will help you to keep account of the total nutrients you have consumed throughout the day. 

Below is a table showing a ‘healthy’ day's menu and a regular menu (not taking into account snacks and drinks). It is easy to see the nutritional content of both and that one could lead to weight gain and, if sustained, possible health issues, especially due to the high fat and salt levels.