Traffic Lights

Traffic Lights

The government is going to push food firms into adopting a single system of nutritional labelling. Currently there are three different systems being used for products in the UK.

Around 20,000 food and drink items carry one system that shows guideline daily amounts of key nutrients, but which doesn't show the traffic light colour-coding system recommended by the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) wants red, amber and green colours on all products to indicate the levels of fat, salt and sugar contained in processed foods.

Eight retailers, 16 manufacturers and four service providers are using this system.

The third system uses a mixture of guideline daily amounts and traffic light colours.

Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, will announce the need for a "single, simple and effective approach to food labelling used by the whole food industry".