UK May Slap Color-Coded Warnings on Junk Food

Update: Score one for junk food manufacturers and their millions of dollars of lobbying funds. The European Parliament voted against putting traffic-light labels on unhealthy foods. Instead of traffic-light labels, officials voted to include Guideline Daily Amounts labels, which express nutritional content as a percentage of consumers' recommended daily intake.

Imagine if bags of Funions, Fritos, and other nutritionally dubious food items came with warning labels. Would they prompt you to purchase healthier products? British doctors think they would, and they're hoping lawmakers will feel the same way.

According to The Independent, the European Parliament will vote today on whether junk foods should carry color-coded warning labels. The "traffic-light" labels would be colored red, amber, and green, with different hues indicating levels of salts, fats, and other nutritional content. The labels would also read "High," "Medium," and "Low" to show just how many unhealthy ingredients the items in question contain.

The British Medical Association and British Dietetic Association support the legislation, believing it will help cut back on the 70,000 Brits who die from diet-related causes every year. And judging by how beserk food manufacturers are going over the proposed law, I'm guessing they think the labels will work, too. Companies like Kellogg's, Nestle, Kraft, and PepsiCo are shoving millions of dollars toward lobbying efforts against the labeling system. The proposed legislation really has corporate bohemoths running scared, thinking that they may lose some of their most dedicated, European junk-food junkies.

And unfortunately, their lobbying efforts seem to have worked before. This past March, the European Parliament's environment committee rejected the traffic-light labeling system with a vote of 32 to 30. Some folks say if it weren't for corporate lobbyists whispering in politicians' ears and greasing their palms, the vote would have gone through.

Tomorrow's vote is turning out to be a real nail-biter, with media outlets claiming that the vote is sure to be "close." Officials will vote on three different labeling systems for junk food, the aforementioned traffic-light labels, guideline daily amounts based on percentages per 100 grams, and calorie counts. Traffic lights are seen as the most effective method of getting consumers to put down the Twinkie in favor of healthier snacks.

I'm hoping lawmakers will vote with public health and sustainability of foods in mind and pass legislation establishing traffic-light labels. Back-of-package labels citing lists of gram amounts and percentages can be confusing for consumers. Creating labels that really spell out whether a product is healthy or not creates greater transparency, allowing shoppers to make smarter choices about what they put in their carts.

Color-coded warning labels alone obviously won't halt the world's obesity epidemic in its tracks, but it is a small step in the right direction. To really enact big moves towards healthier, more sustainable foods, it's going to take a combination of education, clear labeling, legislation, and better marketing for nutritious and earth-friendly goods.

If the European Parliament does pass the traffic-light labeling system, it would become UK law and go into effect in about three years.

Photo credit: TungChingLU via Wikimedia Commons