At present, all food products must include an ingredient list, explains Alan Reilly, deputy chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), but there are no "prescriptive standards" regarding content.
"Provided a product is labelled correctly and people want to buy the product you're free to go ahead and sell it," he says, adding that the authority's website carries a detailed report on labelling requirements - www.fsai.ie
The issue of "nutrition profiling" whereby claims are made about a product being "low-fat" or "low-salt" is currently under discussion at European level.
"It would help consumers a lot if they knew that the other constituents in a low-salt product matched the healthiness of the food," says Reilly. For example, the product would also be low-fat and low in sugar.
In the meantime he urges parents to read labels and to know what their children are eating. "People really have to educate themselves with respect to calories," he says, stressing that some convenience foods are very "energy dense". "There are as many calories in some giant bars as there are in a meal of steak with veg and potatoes so if children are snacking on these they may be eating the equivalent of five large meals," he says.
He stresses the importance of eating fresh fruit and vegetables, as key to a balanced diet. But for many parents persuading their children to eat up their greens can be a battle, especially in today's culture of consumer choice.
"There is a perception that children are a lot more fussy, but this is often a behavioural issue," says Superquinn's nutrition advisor Breda Gavin.
"The way we eat and what we eat has totally changed. Children don't just do things, they learn things." She gives an example of one exasperated parent whose child wouldn't eat broccoli.
On enquiring it transpired that the parent didn't eat green vegetables either.
Ensuring children eat healthily is therefore not simply a matter of making convenience foods more wholesome, but of parents leading the way in their eating habits.