The Food Standards Agency (FSA) introduced the traffic light label system to make it easier for everyone to make healthier food choices.
For most of us, the Nutrition Information on the backs of packets isn’t very helpful. Only giving amounts of salt, sugars, fat and saturated fat (per portion) makes it hard to compare products. And stating the percentage of your ‘recommended daily allowances’ can cause anxiety about what else you might be eating during the day. So the idea of the food traffic lights label system is to show, right on the front of the packet, an at-a-glance guide to the healthiness of the product. Although the traffic light label designs may look different on different products, you can still compare these foods because the companies are all using the same Food Standards Agency guidelines.
The colour-coded labels show you if the food has high, medium or low amounts of fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt.
Click on a traffic light to find out what each traffic light colour means.