Lack of cereal red light labels branded ‘scandal’
CAMPAIGNERS HAVE branded the decision of some food manufacturers not to use a colour-coded labelling system on cereals as “scandalous”.
Action on Sugar, based at Queen Mary University of London, is calling for “traffic light” front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition information to be introduced across all food and drink products.
But it says that many manufacturers are not using the Department of Health-endorsed system, despite containing high levels of sugar which would attract a red label. The group surveyed 25 cereal manufacturers and found that while Bear, Jordans, Kellogg’s and Nestle do use FOP labels, they are not colour-coded.
Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Honey and Nut Clusters, Eat Natural Toasted Muesli Vine Fruit and Jordans Country Crisp with Crunchy Chunky Nuts were highlighted as some of the cereals that would have a red label for sugar content.
Action on Sugar said this makes it very difficult for consumers to interpret the information and make informed decisions. It also found that a further six brands – Eat Natural, Lizi’s, Nature’s Path, Paleo Foods Co., Rude Health and Dorset Cereals, – contain no FOP nutrition labelling and some products contain high levels of sugar.
Katharine Jenner, Action on Sugar and FoodSwitch UK campaign director, said: “Shoppers should be seeing red, and they would be if manufacturers used the correct labels. It’s scandalous that certain food manufacturers are still refusing to be transparent when it comes to front-of-pack nutrition labelling.
“If there is no front-of-pack label with one brand, shoppers should assume they are hiding something – so buy another brand instead.”
The sugar and health expert group says that cereal shoppers could save themselves around 45 teaspoons of sugar per month (182g) if they had access to consistent FOP labelling.
Registered nutritionist Kawther Hashem, researcher at Action on Sugar, said: “Consistent labels allow shoppers, at a glance, to see the huge variation in salt and sugar levels in breakfast cereals.”