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Shoppers tricked by 'healthy' food labels
Last updated at 11:37am on 16.02.07
Shoppers are being misled by a new food industry labelling system which can make products appear healthier than they really are, campaigners have claimed.
The labels adopted by Tesco, Walker's, Kellogg's, Nestle and many others, are claimed to offer clear information.
However, health campaigners believe the system is being manipulated to give a false impression.
Under the GDA system - it stands for Guideline Daily Amount - the amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt in one serving of a product are shown on the front of the pack.
Each figure is also shown as the percentage it makes up of the recommended daily intake or GDA.
But campaigners says manufacturers may use artificially small servings as the basis for the figures, while the consumption data is calculated against the diet of an adult man, making the percentagesmisleading for children, teenagers and most women.
The National Heart Forum has published a report detailing failings in the GDA system.
Its deputy chief executive, Jane Landon, said: "Some manufacturers and retailers are failing their customers by using nutritional food labels which are overly complex and misleading.
"Some even appear to be manipulating the front-of-pack label to promote their products rather than to inform their customers."
The Daily Mail highlighted the problems with the GDA labelling last September. We revealed that Tesco was among firms using unrealistically small servings as the basis of its figures.
For example, the serving used for its wafer thin honey roast ham was a single slice while the one for its Value Milk Chocolate was a single chunk.
The forum has published further examples. It said the GDA figures on a bottle of Tesco cola are calculated on the basis of 100ml, though a typical serving is normally regarded as a 330ml can.
The label on Kellogg's Ricicles, says a 30g serving of the children's cereal provides 13 per cent of an adult's GDA for sugar. However, it would be 24 per cent of the daily sugar consumption recommended for a child aged between five and ten.
Tesco's Cheese Singles, from the chain's Healthy Living range, gives nutritional information for a single slice. The label says this serving offers 7 per cent of the GDA for saturated fat and 10 per cent for salt.
However, the pack picture suggests a serving of five slices, which would be 35 per cent of the GDA for saturated fat and 50 per cent for salt.
The food industry, led by Tesco, developed the GDA scheme as an
alternative to the Traffic Lights system promoted by the Government's Food Standards Agency.
The FSA scheme uses red, amber and green logos to identify whether a product is high, medium or low in fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar.
Miss Landon said: "Consumer research shows that the Food Standards Agency's traffic light labels work best to enable real, healthy change in people"s shopping habits.
"Repeated surveys show that consumers would like to see one, universal labelling scheme - such as the traffic lights - whatever the brand, wherever they shop."
Richard Watts, of the Children's Food Campaign, said: "The case for supporting traffic light food labelling is now overwhelming. This report will put real pressure on the stuck-in-the-mud retailers and food companies that still use the discredited GDA labels."
Tesco said it was reviewing some of its GDA labels, including those on cola, chocolate, ham and sausages, with the intention of changing the size of the servings.
A spokesman said: "We know that customers find GDA labelling helpful in choosing healthier options, and we reject the idea that the scheme is complex and misleading. The test of any nutritional labelling system is whether it changes behaviour, and our nutritional signposts are doing just that."
Kellogg's described the attack on GDA labels as "amazing".
A spokesman said there are plans to develop standard portion sizes to help consumers make comparisons, and to put GDA figures relevant to children on packs.
Reader views (2)
All systems of food labelling are designed by idiots for idiots. GDA is meaningless and Traffic Lighting brackets food according to highly specific criteria - greek yoghurt is therefore bad whereas diet cola is good. If adults can't be trusted to look after their own food intake then that's their own problem. Why should Government and industry be responsible for the public's choices?
- Andrew, London
I'm not familiar with these particular products but as a general comment I've noticed that foods often give figures for a serving smaller than I wish to eat. But that's okay because the label tells you what size that portion is, so I can work out roughly what I'm eating. What's more confusing is the issue of the figures' being relevant only for adult men but I don't think it would be practical or desirable for labels to become larger to accommodate more info. Anyone who bothers to read the label is surely going to do an approximate calculation - okay, they won't know the figures for a five-year-old child, say, but they can assess whether something is giving that child "a lot" of salt or "not much", which is all that's needed.
- Suzanne, London
