Madam, – I wish to refute claims made by Tim Mobsby, president of Kellogg Europe, (Business, July 30th) regarding Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) and traffic light food-labelling schemes. The Irish Heart Foundation believes that consumers are entitled to clear and unambiguous food labels which support healthy food choices.
In Ireland, over 60 per cent of adults are either overweight or obese, due primarily to the fact that the healthy choice is not the easy choice. This has obvious health implications. We have enjoyed years of reducing mortality from cardiovascular disease; however, the obesity epidemic means that mortality and morbidity caused by heart disease and stroke will soon be on the increase once again.
A range of scientific studies have demonstrated that traffic light labelling using red, amber and green to denote high, medium and low levels of nutrients is best understood by consumers. GDA labelling in isolation has been shown to be confusing and misleading.
The Irish Heart Foundation in conjunction with heart foundations and consumer organisations across Europe believes that there is a wealth of scientific evidence to show that front of pack labels combining traffic light colours; the words high, medium and low; percentage guideline daily amounts; and the levels of nutrients per portion of product best supports consumers to make healthy food choices.
The Foundation is continuing to lobby politicians at European level to vote in the interest of public health, rather than in the interest of the food industry and help make a real difference in the fight against heart disease and stroke.
Mr Mobsby states that “there are no good or bad foods” but this is misleading as there is ample evidence that numerous breakfast cereals are high in sugar and/or salt. Furthermore, many of these products are openly targeted at children using slick marketing techniques.
The GDA system proclaimed to be consumer-friendly is in fact based on adult nutritional requirements and serves to deceive parents into thinking that products are healthier than they actually are. I would challenge the food industry to explain why it has spent €1 billion lobbying MEPs to vote against traffic lights rather than focusing its energies closer to home and reformulating products to be lower in fat, sugar and salt. – Yours, etc,