The industry's campaign to educate the public about front-of-pack Guideline Daily Amount labelling began in earnest this week with the launch of a consumer-facing website.
The site - at www.whatsinsideguide.com - is the first step in the Food and Drink Federation's drive to win consumers' hearts and minds in the battle with the Food Standards Agency over which is the best approach to signpost labelling - GDAs or multiple traffic lights.
TV and press advertising for GDAs will follow next spring as part of a campaign headlined 'Know what's going inside you'.
A seminar hosted by the FDF this week was told that a survey of 45 independent nutritional consultants found the majority thought both GDAs and traffic lights were equally useful in providing at-a-glance information on the levels of nutrients in a product.
But while 80% thought GDAs were useful for finding out the contribution a product makes to a diet, just 10% said the same of traffic lights. However, the debate over signpost labelling still divides the industry. This week it emerged that Musgrave Budgens Londis is to use traffic lights on products from the new year.
But, also this week, Stephen Waugh, the new president of the British Frozen Food Federation, threw his support behind GDAs. "Generally, UK consumers are still not sufficiently knowledgeable about nutritional matters," he said at the organisation's annual lunch. "If they are spoon-fed with traffic lights only, they will never achieve enough understanding to be able to determine their diets for themselves."
Some, such as M&S and McCain Foods, have developed a combined approach. FDF president and Unilever UK national manager Gavin Neath said this was little better than traffic lights alone. "If you have a mixed economy, there will still be a temptation for consumers to take red to mean 'stop' and green to mean 'go'."
The site - at www.whatsinsideguide.com - is the first step in the Food and Drink Federation's drive to win consumers' hearts and minds in the battle with the Food Standards Agency over which is the best approach to signpost labelling - GDAs or multiple traffic lights.
TV and press advertising for GDAs will follow next spring as part of a campaign headlined 'Know what's going inside you'.
A seminar hosted by the FDF this week was told that a survey of 45 independent nutritional consultants found the majority thought both GDAs and traffic lights were equally useful in providing at-a-glance information on the levels of nutrients in a product.
But while 80% thought GDAs were useful for finding out the contribution a product makes to a diet, just 10% said the same of traffic lights. However, the debate over signpost labelling still divides the industry. This week it emerged that Musgrave Budgens Londis is to use traffic lights on products from the new year.
But, also this week, Stephen Waugh, the new president of the British Frozen Food Federation, threw his support behind GDAs. "Generally, UK consumers are still not sufficiently knowledgeable about nutritional matters," he said at the organisation's annual lunch. "If they are spoon-fed with traffic lights only, they will never achieve enough understanding to be able to determine their diets for themselves."
Some, such as M&S and McCain Foods, have developed a combined approach. FDF president and Unilever UK national manager Gavin Neath said this was little better than traffic lights alone. "If you have a mixed economy, there will still be a temptation for consumers to take red to mean 'stop' and green to mean 'go'."
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