Dawn Primarolo was decided. Traffic lights were better, the public health minister told MPs, food industry execs, and pressure groups at a CASH event in the House of Commons this week.

Dr Ian Reynolds, deputy chair at the Food Standards Agency, agreed. And if Dame Deirdre Hutton hadn't been spending the taxpayers' money promoting the FSA's work on salt in Australia (why?) she would doubtless have concurred on the labelling system of choice.

This is an odd position for politicians and regulators to take. They are awaiting the results of research, commissioned by the FSA, to find out whether consumers prefer traffic lights or Guideline Daily Amounts. But though the results are not due until December, they've already made their minds up.

As it happens, events in Europe were overtaking Ms Primarolo and the FSA. In what the Daily Mail described as a 'Junk Food Green Light', the EU ruled that while retailers and manufacturers were still free to use traffic lights, they would not allow the red, amber, green system to become mandatory as it contravened Common Market rules on free trade and would also "lead to oversimplification".

"We should not underestimate the sophistication of the EU consumer," Commissioner for Health Markos Kyprianou explained, straighter than a banana. "People do have an understanding about the food they buy. And we can't just tell people what they should and shouldn't eat. Our proposal is to provide them with all the information they need to make healthier choices."

So: as Primarolo and the DoH looks to the industry to unite behind a single approach to food labelling (see p28), it's red faces and red lights all round.

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