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What is RSS?Monday 5 March 2007
traffic lights ad
A fourth TV ad in a series of ads to raise awareness of traffic light labelling will be aired for the first time on 5 March.
The TV ads support traffic light front-of-pack labelling, which allows shoppers to see at a glance if a food product is high, medium or low in certain nutrients. The fourth 10-second ad will be seen on ITV, satellite channels, and a Welsh version will be broadcast on S4C.
Earlier ads started running on 17 January and the latest ad will be shown until 18 March. Six-sheet posters have been used outside some supermarkets during February, and ads have appeared in the national press and in women's weekly magazines since late January.
Labelling complex foods such as ready meals, pies and pizzas, with clear and honest nutritional information is an important step in helping to improve the nation's diet.
The red, amber and green colour coding used in the traffic light system provides easy-to-understand advice on foods that have high, medium and low amounts of saturated fats, sugars and salt.
Another system currently being used by some manufacturers and retailers is based on percentages of Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) of fat, sugar and salt (for example a portion contains 35% of your GDA of salt).
Food Standards Agency Chair Deirdre Hutton said: 'Most manufacturers and retailers are now using front-of-pack nutritional labelling and this is good news. Some shoppers find extra GDA information useful - and all industry needs to do is add traffic light colours to their GDA schemes to ensure the consumer gets the best of both worlds.
‘Our new labelling TV ads, like the traffic light approach, are clear and simple - with the beauty being that these labels speak for themselves.’
'Our extensive and published research demonstrates that the use of traffic light colours is key to helping people interpret nutritional information on foods. We want to highlight to shoppers that these labels are now out there and really can help us all to make healthier choices.
'Our new labelling TV ads, like the traffic light approach, are clear and simple - with the beauty being that these labels speak for themselves.'
Results of independent research into the impact and effects of front of pack labelling on shoppers' behaviour will be released next year.
Back to topFollow the debate on signpost labels by visiting FSA Chief Scientist Andrew Wadge's blog. You can access it at (External) food.gov.uk/scienceblog .
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