Salt, labels and portion sizes

Posted by Andrew Wadge on August 24th 2007 in Supporting consumer choice

The latest survey by local authorities claims there's been an overall decline in salt content of processed foods by 11% since 2005.

Any reduction in salt levels is a welcome development, but there is still more that needs to be done, particularly by some sections of the food industry, to help consumers cut their salt intake.

We know people want simple, easy-to-use information on the front of packs to help them choose healthier diets and that is what the Agency's traffic light labelling approach does.

It highlights the content of salt, fat, saturated fat and sugar in a way that is consistent and allows consumers to compare products. This new study clearly shows that there can be considerable inconsistency in labelling without traffic lights.

Many retailers and several manufacturers have adopted the Agency's approach. Some of those who have not have been quick to criticise traffic lights as simplistic, but seem slower in getting their own house in order with consistent and realistic portion sizes, so that consumers can make informed choices. I wonder why?

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Portion sizes

Posted by Andrew Wadge on 12/09/2007 - 16:25

Dear Kate, Stephen and David,

Thanks for your comments. It’s great to get industry perspectives in via the blog. David, we’ll have to agree to differ, I’m afraid. You say that traffic light coloured nutrition signpost labelling do not give consumers sufficient information to make healthier choices. While the traffic light colour may be the same, despite the reductions in salt that your company has made, the fact remains that those products still have a 'medium' amount of salt in them and the consumer deserves to know this.

You don’t mention that the Agency’s traffic light labelling approach also shows the actual amount of salt in each portion of a product as part of the signpost information.

Having the traffic light colours as well as per portion information means that consumers can tell whether the levels of a nutrient are high, medium or low without having to compare individual figures. This can only be of benefit to members of our increasingly time-poor society.

The issue of portion sizes that you raise, Stephen, is not simply one of per portion vs 100g, but about giving consumers realistic information upon which to make their decisions.

The Agency’s traffic light labelling system does this by providing both with the colour coding always calculated per 100g of product and the amount of a nutrient shown per portion.

The example of chicken nuggets is a good one. Clearly one chicken nugget is not a realistic portion size (would anyone cook a single chicken nugget?).

Surely, as Kate proposes, the responsible thing to do would be to give the nutrition information for a realistic portion from the outset and let the consumer make their own adjustments.

Thanks again for commenting. If anyone else wants to comment, either from an industry, consumer or other perspective, please get in touch via the blog.

Portion Sizes

Posted by Kate Holme (not verified) on 05/09/2007 - 19:56

Although it might be easy for a consumer to multiply up from 1 nugget to the number they have - which I agree is probably easier than working back from 100g - it is wholly misleading to say that a nugget is a portion or to use the information from 1 nugget on the front flash of a pack in relation to GDA or Traffic Lights. This is supposed to be a quick way for customers to see how healthy a product is - green or low %GDA for 1 nugget is just misleading if the true amount a customer would eat is say 5 times this amount.

Salt and portion sizes

Posted by Stephen Ridge (not verified) on 28/08/2007 - 16:29

The issue of portion size is a problem for us all. If you take a chicken nugget as an example you can choose to give the GDA information per nugget. Is this realistic? It at least gives the customer the option to multiply by the number of nuggets served. Is per 100g any better? My version of a portion size is not the same as a child's so in my view the per nugget approach has value and is not misleading.
Stephen Ridge
somerfield Stores Ltd

Salt reduction

Posted by David McGinlay (not verified) on 24/08/2007 - 14:52

Sorry Andrew but to tie reductions in salt to traffic light labelling is a sham. In my own field of soup we have reduced the salt level on average in our soups in three steps by a total of 40%. Prior to our first reduction our salt traffic light would have been amber. After our first reduction it would still have been amber. After our second reduction it would still have been amber and surprise even with our 40% reduction it is still amber. Our GDA would however have gone down from an initial 35% to about 20%.
Your traffic light system is only popular because it is apparently easy to use but this situation is an ample illustration of how little information it actually gives to the consumer and of how little value in constructing a balanced diet your traffic lights are