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this government In the country’s ongoing “obesity crisis”.
Which consumer champion? Saying “there’s a better way” is critical to helping individuals make healthier eating decisions.
The call comes after the group’s research showed shoppers favored the existing traffic light labeling system.
However, the study also showed a desire for improvements, particularly a more prominent placement and larger size of these labels.
Launched in 2013, the traffic light system uses green, amber and red lights to indicate low, medium and high levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt, as well as calorie information.
Although it is widely used by major manufacturers and retailers, its implementation in the UK remains voluntary rather than a legal requirement.
However, according to which? System usage is inconsistent.
It claims some stores don’t include traffic light labels, or don’t offer color coding.
Which one to study? Get insights from the mobile phones of more than 500 shoppers on how traffic light systems serve customers.
One in three (33%) people say the first thing they look at is the nutrition label on the front of a package.
People most commonly use the traffic light system when choosing snacks (56%), dairy products (33%) and breakfast cereals (27%).
Almost half (47%) said they found the label easy to understand.
In focus groups, the traffic light system was the preferred food labeling option, although suggestions for improving it included making it more prominent and larger.
Which? It said there were also calls to make the scheme easier to understand, such as making recommended serving sizes for certain products more realistic and consistent.
The consumer champion is now calling on the government to introduce a mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labeling scheme.
The company says this could build on the existing traffic light system, making it better for shoppers by increasing consistency, making it more prominent and removing aspects that people might find confusing.
Sue Davies, director of food policy at Which?, said: “The UK is in the midst of an obesity crisis and there is a clear need for better front-of-pack labeling methods to help shoppers make healthier choices.
“Which?” calls on the government to ensure that all manufacturers and retailers use front-of-pack nutrition labelling, ideally by making it mandatory.
“Our research shows that people still prefer traffic light nutrition labels, but the current scheme needs to be updated to make it clearer, simpler and better for consumers.
“The new system should be backed by effective enforcement and oversight from the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland so shoppers can have complete trust in the labels on food.”
By 2022, it is estimated that around 64% of adults in England will be overweight or obese.
November also found that one in 10 children in first year primary school in England is obese, the highest figure ever recorded outside of the pandemic.
Obesity is estimated to cost the NHS more than £11 billion every year.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “This government is introducing a modern food nutrition scoring system to reduce obesity.
“This is just one element of powerful action we are taking to tackle the obesity crisis, as part of our ten-year health plan that will shift the focus from disease to prevention.
“We are also restricting junk food advertising on TV and online, restricting bulk price promotions of less healthy food and introducing mandatory reporting on the sale of healthy food.”