LGA calls for 'radical overhaul' of food and alcohol labelling to tackle obesity

A radical overhaul of labelling on food and alcohol is needed to help tackle spiralling levels of obesity and provide people with more accurate information about what they’re eating and drinking, town hall leaders have said.

The Local Government Association, which represents over 400 councils in England and Wales, is calling for:

• Much clearer information on the front of packaged food that guides consumers in plain English what they are eating, such as the ‘traffic light’ system.
• A change in the law to ensure bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks provide the same information about calories as soft drinks.
• Restaurants and take-aways to give customers a visible and easy-to-understand guide to how healthy food is.
• Better promotion of healthy options when people eat out.
• Food labelling has improved in recent years, but much could still be done to make information easier to understand.

The Food Standards Agency’s ‘traffic light’ system has been picked up by some, but not all retailers. Town halls are urging many more retailers to take up the system that has been proven to work.

Wine, beer, sprits and cider is by law exempt from having to provide information about ingredients and calories. Councils are calling for a change in the law that would give drinkers a clear steer as to the number of calories in their drink and recommended daily allowances.

Council leaders are also calling for more support to be given to restaurants and takeaways so they can give customers an idea of how healthy their food is and can promote healthy options. An easy-to-understand guide that is visible to all customers would be one way to do this.

LACORS (the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services), the organisation which co-ordinates councils’ work on food safety, has launched a series of tests to check that salt, sugars, fats and saturates in food fall within acceptable levels and that food labelling is correct.

Councillor David Rogers, LGA spokesperson on Public Health, said: “An average pint of beer has around 250 calories in it and yet most alcoholic drinks don’t have to put any kind of ingredient labelling on cans and bottles.

"There has been widespread publicity of how drink damages your health but most people are likely completely unaware of the effect it can have on their waistline. Bottles of wine or cans of beer should be properly labelled to let people know the effect that alcohol can have on their weight.

“Much has been done to improve food labelling over the last few years and the ‘traffic light’ system has been taken up by supermarkets and retailers. But the labelling on a lot of food still falls woefully short in providing shoppers with prominent, common-sense information about the fat or sugar that they’re eating.

“It’s not good enough simply to give people a lot of complex information which means little or nothing to anyone who isn’t a nutritionist.

"Food labelling must be much clearer and give consumers a real understanding of what it is they are eating. Providing people with understandable, helpful and coherent information written in plain English about the food they are eating would make a huge difference.

“As a nation we’re eating out more than ever before and restaurants and takeaways also need to tell people what it is that they’re eating. When people eat out, it’s right that they should be able to get a rough idea of how much fat is in their curry or sugar in their ice cream.

"This shouldn’t become another burden on small businesses, so proposals would need to be flexible and support from the Government forthcoming.

“It would be naïve to suggest that food labelling alone is going to halt the obesity problem, there is no silver bullet to solve the issue. We need to eat better, exercise more and lead healthier lives in general and councils play a huge part in that.

"From providing children with free fruit and vegetables and planning towns and cities that encourage walking, to encouraging people to get into the gym and into sports, town halls are on the frontline of tackling obesity.”