The Public Health White Paper is “astonishingly green” and nutrient profiling won’t work, leading health experts claim.
At a round table debate organised by the Snack, Nut & Crisp Manufacturers Association, there was consensus that the emphasis on nutrient profiling, being developed by the Food Standards Agency, was a mistake.
“The real problem with attempting to integrate the whole of nutrition into a profile is that you can’t do it,” said Dr Susan Jebb, head of nutrition at the Medical Research Council. She said those who had spent years looking into the issue had come to this conclusion but MPs new to the subject were embracing it enthusiastically.
Professor Thomas Sanders, director of the Nutrition, Food & Health Research Centre, said: “If you have a traffic-light system only about 10% of foods would be green. It’s like having a skull and crossbones on pack.”
SNACMA director general Steve Chandler said the industry wished to be actively involved in the debate but that nutrient profiling was a “waste of time”.