Last week five of the UK's biggest food manufacturers said newfront-of-pack nutrition labels would be added to their products. Danone,Kellogg's, Kraft, Nestle, and PepsiCo argue their scheme will helpconsumers understand what's in food at a glance.
The move follows the decision by two major chocolate companies, CadburyTrebor Bassett and Mars, to introduce health warnings on theirwrappers.
But this pre-empts a decision by the Food Standards Agency in March onwhether to introduce a traffic light-coded scheme. This would use thecolours red, yellow and green to indicate foods that are high, mediumand low in fat, sugar and salt.
Paul Lincoln, chief executive of the National Heart Forum, said: "It isprobably no coincidence that the scheme has been introduced ahead of thefinal decision on the best scheme for the public by the independent FoodStandards Agency in March. Could this be because the scheme most likelyto be approved would affect these companies' sales and profits and isprobably the worst option for them?"
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