Uncle Ben’s to overhaul packaging for new image

Uncle Ben’s, the Mars Foods-owned rice and sauce brand, has redesigned its packaging as part of a revamp of the brand’s look that will also see it put Guideline Daily Amounts nutrition labelling on the front of packs.

The new design aims to improve awareness of the number of products in the range and uses fresh food photos and lighter colours to improve the customer perception about the naturalness of the products.

The move to put GDAs on front of packs has been adopted across the industry. The scheme is supported by several of the UK’s biggest food firms, including Mars, Kraft, Danone, Kellogg and Nestlé, but goes against the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) “traffic light” system.

The FSA system, which is currently under review, uses red, amber and green to show if foods have high, medium or low levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.

A European Commission review on food labelling is also ongoing and a report is due to be published this month. It is expected to support the GDA system.