UK Giants Take Own Step to Nutrition Labelling

Danone, Kellogg’s, Kraft, Nestlé and PepsiCo have committed to putting Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) information on the front of their products.

10/02/06 Five of the UK’s biggest food manufacturers have announced they have agreed to take a common approach to front-of-pack simplified labelling aimed at helping consumers understand what’s in their food at a glance.

Danone, Kellogg’s, Kraft, Nestlé and PepsiCo have committed to putting Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) information on the front of their products.

The manufacturers own some of Britain’s biggest food brands, including Actimel, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Dairylea, KitKat and Walkers crisps.

The scheme is said to provide consumers with consistent symbols on the front of packs across different brands that show the amount of calories, sugar, fat, saturates and salt per portion. The system ignores the one favoured by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), which uses traffic light colour coding to show high, medium and low nutrient content and would have additional information printed on the back of packets.

On small packets, where space is at a premium, the calorie GDA icon will appear on the front of packs with further GDA information on the back.

This initiative marks a far-reaching step in delivering the major food brands' commitment to enhance nutrition information for consumers and demonstrates the industry’s dedication to helping the Government meet pledges made in its ‘Choosing Health’ White Paper.

A key feature of the agreed GDA format is that it clearly points out what percentage of an individual’s daily amount of each of the five key nutrients is contained in a portion.

Danone, Kellogg’s, Kraft, Nestlé and PepsiCo are currently in the final stages of developing a consistent look for front-of-pack GDA labelling. They are also in dialogue with other manufacturers about adopting the same scheme with the ultimate aim that it becomes the industry standard.

Recent research* into nutrient signposting conducted by food industry think tank, the IGD, showed GDAs to be particularly helpful to consumers, with a majority (63%) familiar with the term Guideline Daily Amount. In addition, the vast majority of consumers (83%) believed that GDAs should be shown on all food products.

Martin Glenn, CEO of PepsiCo UK & Ireland, speaking on behalf of the five manufacturers, said: "Front-of-pack GDA labelling is consumers’ preferred way of learning about what’s in their food. We know from our customers that they don’t want to be told what they can and can’t eat. However, they do want easily accessible information to guide their choices.

"By having the information in this format on the front of packs, consumers will be able to compare similar products while they are shopping and make easy choices about which products best meet their dietary needs.

"Having a consistent approach to labelling will help consumers to recognise GDAs easily and understand the information at a glance. Products bearing the new common format of GDAs on the front of packs will be in shops in the coming months."

The Food Standards Agency said it was encouraging that manufacturers were taking the need to improve food labelling seriously.

But a spokesman warned: "However it is important that we all work together to deliver a scheme which works for consumers across the whole food industry.

"Consumers tell us they want a straightforward labelling scheme, established by an authoritative and trusted source, which will show them at a glance if a food contains high, medium or low amounts of fat, saturated fat, salt or sugar."