Health minister Alan Johnson will today urge supermarkets to unify their food labeling, as the government unveils its strategy to cut obesity rates in the UK.
Prim Minister Gordon Brown backs a move that would force supermarkets down the route of using a single labelling system to detail fat, salt, sugar and calorie content of products. Ministers are supporting their quest with research that reveleaed confusion amongst consumers caused by different labeling methods used instore.
Three systems are used by the major supermarkets: monochrome by Tesco, traffic lights by Sainsbury's and hybrid by Asda and Waitrose.
In pursuit of its objective, the government is reported to have asked the Food Standards Agency to carry out an independent evaluation of the three main labelling systems and make recommendations over the course of this year.
Johnson will say: "I want to see our major producers and retailers agree with the Food Standards Agency on a single labelling system, easy to understand and best able to support all of us in making informed, healthy choices about the food we eat. Real change which will put the consumer first in our efforts to improve health and tackle obesity."
A separate move to impose a watershed on TV junk-food advertising could still get government backing, although there are doubts that ministers are fully behind the proposal.
