Mislead by food labels

I have set this blog up because I am confused and worried about the way leading companies explain the content of their foods on their labels.

Last week in the British paper The Daily Mail, an article ran about the labeling system and how companies use different techniques to show shoppers what’s in the food they are buying.  Some supermarkets and food manufacturers use a % system that shows how much fat, sugar and salt is in the foods they are selling.

However, the article went on to explain that these companies are not using the grading system properly and are not within the government guidelines.  For example, Tesco may say that their sausages contain 4g’s of fat, but this is misleading because that is for each sausage and not for the entire pack.  The system that most supermarkets and some food companies use is the traffic light system – red = high in fat or salt, amber = medium and green = low.  Apparently this system is favoured by most people, but would mean that some companies won’t be able to make as big a profit as they would like, because people may avoid the products or cut-down on them, in favour of maintaining their health.

Surely the issue of health and a balanced diet is far more important than huge companies posting massive annual profits.  There is a growing obesity crisis in the UK anyway and it is hard enough for people to think-up healthy meals and ensure that their families are getting the right food they need for a healthy lifestyle, without being tricked by companies as to the content of the food they are buying.

I think this is a really serious issue because we need to trust manufacturers and supermarkets to be honest about the food they are selling and not conceal the true content of their foods.  If people are on a diet and are making sure that they only eat 5g’s of fat a day, then they should be able to understand labels and buy without the fear of being conned into eating something that is billed as ‘healthy’, but that is actually in reality not as healthy as they were lead to believe.

The government needs to ensure that all supermarkets and leading food providers are in line with the correct mesaures and that shoppers are safe-guarded against misleading food labels.

The revolution starts now…!

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