Pressure is mounting in Parliament for tough action to force food firms and retailers to embrace the Food Standards Agency's controversial nutritional labelling scheme.
A motion is going before the Commons proposing compulsory adoption of the traffic-light system, which awards red, amber and green lights according to fat, sugar and salt content.
The ten-minute rule motion, which gets its first airing on Tuesday, calls for "leave to bring in a Bill to introduce a uniform system for the labelling of food and drinks retailed in England and Wales to show the quantity of salt, sugar and fats they contain".
It will be proposed by Tory MP and Commons health select committee member David Amess, who claims the industry is "in denial" about traffic lights and that the refusal of big food companies to adopt the scheme is "a disgrace".
The motion will come hard on the heels of a Commons special debate on the issue, promoted this week by Labour backbencher Jim Dowd, a health select committee member.
Dowd criticised processors for rejecting the FSA scheme in favour of the front-of-pack GDA model developed by Tesco, and called for traffic lights to become a legal requirement. He said: "The Food and Drink Federation appears to be opposed [to traffic lights], but as the people who pay the Federation's salaries are Nestlé, PepsiCo, Kraft, Kellogg and Danone, that is hardly a surprise."
Public health minister Caroline Flint reaffirmed her preference for traffic lights, insisting they were more easily understood than GDAs, which the public "found confusing".
The Department of Health said there was no prospect of legislation in the immediate future.
Melanie Leech, DG of the FDF, said: "Food manufacturers and government share the same vision of empowered consumers with better information to help them make the right decisions. There is clear agreement across industry that GDAs are the best way to do this."
A motion is going before the Commons proposing compulsory adoption of the traffic-light system, which awards red, amber and green lights according to fat, sugar and salt content.
The ten-minute rule motion, which gets its first airing on Tuesday, calls for "leave to bring in a Bill to introduce a uniform system for the labelling of food and drinks retailed in England and Wales to show the quantity of salt, sugar and fats they contain".
It will be proposed by Tory MP and Commons health select committee member David Amess, who claims the industry is "in denial" about traffic lights and that the refusal of big food companies to adopt the scheme is "a disgrace".
The motion will come hard on the heels of a Commons special debate on the issue, promoted this week by Labour backbencher Jim Dowd, a health select committee member.
Dowd criticised processors for rejecting the FSA scheme in favour of the front-of-pack GDA model developed by Tesco, and called for traffic lights to become a legal requirement. He said: "The Food and Drink Federation appears to be opposed [to traffic lights], but as the people who pay the Federation's salaries are Nestlé, PepsiCo, Kraft, Kellogg and Danone, that is hardly a surprise."
Public health minister Caroline Flint reaffirmed her preference for traffic lights, insisting they were more easily understood than GDAs, which the public "found confusing".
The Department of Health said there was no prospect of legislation in the immediate future.
Melanie Leech, DG of the FDF, said: "Food manufacturers and government share the same vision of empowered consumers with better information to help them make the right decisions. There is clear agreement across industry that GDAs are the best way to do this."
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