The European Union yesterday moved to impose standard nutritional information in food labelling across 27 countries in an attempt to counter the epidemic of obesity in Europe, but disappointed some UK health charities by not making the "traffic light" system mandatory.
Under new rules unveiled by the European commission, all prepackaged food will need to clearly display amounts of sugar, salt, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, and energy on the front of packaging.
The new rules, announced by Markos Kyprianou, the EU's health commissioner, represented a defeat for Europe's powerful food industry, which lobbied heavily for a system of self-regulation.
The alcohol industry, however, scored a victory by being exempted from the measures, with the exception of "alcopops". Their packaging will need to list ingredients.
On food products, provided the mandatory information was displayed clearly on the front of food packaging, individual countries would be free to opt for their own display systems, Kyprianou said.
Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation expressed disappointment that the EU had not imposed the traffic light system. The system uses red, amber and green dots to signal levels of salt, sugar and fat. The main alternative system is the guideline daily amount (GDA) system.
Tesco has refused to back a traffic light system because of anxieties about red labels putting off customers and uses monochrome GDA signposts instead. Sainsbury's uses a traffic light system; Asda and Waitrose back a hybrid system.
Kyprianou appeared to favour GDA but left it to the individual countries. "We allow flexibility," he said. There were arguments "for and against" the traffic light system.
"It can lead to oversimplification. We don't want to make decisions for the consumer. We want the consumer to have the information."
But Ruairi O'Connor, policy and public affairs manager at the British Heart Foundation, said: "We believe the European commission should have gone a step further and backed mandatory colour-coded traffic lights on food labels. Research shows that these are more effective than GDA labels in helping people see what's in the food they buy."
Phaedra Neal, of Diabetes UK, said: "The commission is right to recognise the importance of clear, front-of-pack labelling to help consumers make healthier food choices.
"But it has ignored evidence which shows the traffic light system works better than the GDA percentage system in allowing people to assess nutrient content and compare different products."
The Food Standards Agency said it was launching consultations with all "stakeholders" in Britain on the plans.
