Traffic Light Label Essay

A traffic light label, developed by the Food Standards Agency, provides independent expert dietary advice in order to help people make healthier choices quicker and easier. The nutrition label is found on the front of packaging and it ranks saturated fatty acids, sugars, fat and salt by assigning the color green, amber or red according to it’s content per 100 grams. Color-coded nutritional information, tells you at a glance whether the food has high, medium or low amounts of fat, sugars, salt. Green means low, amber means medium and red means high. So, the more green the healthier the choice, therefore buying a food that has mostly green on the label means it’s a healthier choice.

The food that people eat plays a major role in obesity. In Europe, almost 20 percent of children that are of school age and around 60 percent of adults can be categorized as overweight or obese. In the UK, 61 percent of the adult population is overweight and obese, one quarter of the population’s children aged 4-5 and a third of 10-11 year olds were also

Traffic light labels were seen to improve accessibility to dietary information to a wide range of buyers and help them make healthy choices regarding food. The concept of traffic light labels is a guide that will teach people of all ages a healthy method of eating. The Green category are the best choices and the drinks and foods that have the green label are usually the healthiest choices, ones that are a particularly good source of the vital nutrients, very low in saturated fat as well as added salt and sugar, high in fiber and low in energy. These should be encouraged and available at all times. The Amber category foods should be eaten in moderation and chosen carefully, and the Red category should be limited and if consumed in large amounts on a regular basis can lead to weight gain and further