Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Earl Peel (Conservative). It was answered on Thursday, 2 March 2006.

Stilton Cheese

Question: My Lords, surely the answer is to display the level of salt on the package. Does the Minister agree that it will then be up to the consumer to decide whether he or she wants to eat that product? To have the Food Standards Agency, the Government or anybody else telling the consumer what to eat is beyond the pale.

Answer: My Lords, neither the Food Standards Agency nor the Government is telling people what to eat. We have a public responsibility to try to ensure that food production processes minimise the use of salt where appropriate. The examples that I gave earlier show that many responsible producers are taking notice of that public health consideration. There is a range of ways to help the public in this area. One is raising public awareness and another is labelling. Yet another is what the FSA is doing: working with food producers, which is a sensible way forward in trying to reduce salt levels.

Secondary information