Written question asked by Helen Southworth (Labour) on Wednesday, 23 February 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 4 March 2005. It was answered by Melanie Johnson (Labour) on Friday, 4 March 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress has been made towards achieving a clear and simple contents labelling system for all prepared foods that includes essential nutritional information and an indicator of high, medium or low value in respect of fat sugar and salt content; and if he will make a statement. - Inc ref to White Paper 'Choosing Health'.

Answer: Helen Southworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made towards achieving a clear and simple contents labelling system for all prepared foods that includes essential nutritional information and an indicator of high, medium or low value in respect of fat sugar and salt content; and if he will make a statement. [218605] Miss Melanie Johnson: The recently published White Paper, "Choosing Health", contains a commitment to introduce a straightforward system of front of pack "signpost" food labelling that will help consumers to make healthier choices more easily. In November, the Food Standards Agency published the results of the qualitative phase of research to identify the preferred format for a signposting system. It is now planning quantitative research on the preferred formats, and will be consulting stakeholders on the study design shortly. The research is expected to include at least one format that rates the fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt contents of the food as "high", "medium" or "low".

Secondary information