Food industry needs a handle on labelling

It would appear that hardly a day goes by without some regulator or commentator having a pop at the food industry, largely on the grounds of safeguarding the nation’s health. For the most part, the food sector has chosen to react to each accusation as it surfaces on an entirely ad hoc basis.

While the problem of obesity clearly needs to be tackled, the industry would do itself good if it could pre-empt the barrage of criticism with a few solutions of its own. And the first step should be offering greater transparency in listing product ingredients and content. For consumers to benefit from clearer food labelling, industry-wide product information standardisation has to happen. Bewildering consumers with labels containing information that can be misconstrued when compared to other products on the shelf will do little to dent obesity levels.

Failure to get a handle on this situation now could eventually lead to the development of national love handles that refuse to go away.

Simon Orosz

UK general manager

Hybris

Milton Keynes