Food labeling change now ’premature’ says British Retail Consortium

Retailers’ nutritional labelling schemes have all been developed with customers and have all produced real shifts in food buying habits, said the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Reacting to the publication today (Wednesday) of an independent evaluation, commissioned by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) into the front-of-pack labelling schemes currently used by UK retailers; the BRC said a European review is underway so changing the UK regime now would be premature.

This new research is only one piece of the available information. It will need to be analysed with the mass of evidence retailers already have before any decisions are made.

British Retail Consortium Director General Stephen Robertson said: "UK retailers have led the way on food labelling for many years. Working closely with their customers, retailers have developed schemes which have all been shown to be effective in actually changing the food customers choose to buy.

"This report is only one more piece of work alongside the mass of evidence retailers already have. Other research is underway as part of an EU food-labelling review.

"Until a final decision about a front-of-pack labelling scheme is taken at European level, it would be premature for the UK to adopt any new regime of its own. Changing and then changing again would just produce extra costs and customer confusion.

"Ultimately, labelling is only one aspect of tackling obesity alongside product reformulation, public education, exercise and personal responsibility."