Cadbury joins rejection of traffic light nutrition labelling

Confectionery giant Cadbury is the lastest company to reject an official recommendation that food products declare their nutritional content by means of traffic light labelling.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and others have also rejected the proposals just published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), leaving the official attempt to steer consumers towards healthier eating in disarray. The FSA proposals are out for consultation until February 8.Cadbury favours using Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) to indicate nutritional contents. “People know that confectionery is a treat and that soft drinks are high in calories,” said its global head of consumer impact, Trish Fields. “The FSA proposal is negative messaging. The focus now on single nutrients is going to make it take a lot longer to achieve any degree of success. I think you’ll find manufacturers will use GDAs.”

Cadbury said that its £140,000 labelling research project had found that GDAs “really struck home with consumers”, because they put the food into context. “We found that consumers want to know more [about food], but more importantly, they were emphatic that food is a pleasure,” said Fields.

Cadbury has already introduced a global standard for nutrition information, lengthening the nutrition panel on products to eight nutrients. “We need to make the nutritional panel easier to understand - remove the science,” said Fields. “On a large block [of chocolate] we will consider GDAs, but the GDA concept needs to sit alongside the nutrition panel.”

She said that Cadbury wanted to give consumers a more holistic picture of food via a wider campaign involving everyone, including the government. The plan was to broadcast a message to consumers via various media, including television, magazines and schools, educating people on food limits, as well as the importance of being active, said Fields. “People want the information to come from the government so that people aren’t suspicious of food manufacturers.”

The BRC's director general, Kevin Hawkins said: “We want to help consumers make informed choices on enjoying a healthy and balanced diet. However, the BRC still feels that information for consumers is only part of the equation. Government needs to also ensure consumers are educated about healthy lifestyles.”