The government’s lack of consistency in health and diet messages is failing both industry and consumers, Asda’s regulatory affairs manager Gordon Maddan said this week.
“We are baffled by the priorities - the Food Standards Agency is talking about salt and hypertension, the DoH about obesity and fat and then there is the eat more fruit and veg and reduce cancer message,” he told delegates at a Westminster Diet & Health Forum on risk.
“We need messages that encompass all elements. And we need to look at redeveloping products in one go, otherwise you may take out salt but add more fat.”
Maddan said retailers were ideally placed to help customers make informed decisions. “We are in the trust business. Rather than customers making a whole lot of decisions on a myriad of things, they expect us to do the
right thing for them. And it is very serious if they think we are not doing this. It is very easy to lose the trust of customers.”
He added: “Our customers want information, not to be told what to do. We have a role to reinforce key government diet and health messages and can turn them into more exciting messages rather than negative ones. We need a more balanced approach.”
He said that labelling was not a panacea for health issues and customers needed consistency across the market.
“If a label is coded red in one retailer it should be in another. It is not in the interest of consumers for there to be a plethora of messages.”
Former Northern Foods chairman Lord Haskins, Labour member of the EU sub-committee on environment, agriculture, public health and consumer protection, said that it was impossible to satisfy people’s demands for an entirely risk-free environment.
“Every time a crisis arises people don’t look at themselves to do something, they say it’s the state’s responsibility.”
He said regulation was not the answer to obesity. The best approach was to give advice about diet and exercise and cut levels of fat and sugar in food.
Siân Harrington

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