9 replies to this topic

[Roger Athlon]

Can anyone tell me if there is any legislation which forces manufacturers to show the sugar content on the food label. As a registered Diabetic sugar content in food is very important to me but I often find that many food labels do not show the percentage of sugar contained in all products.
Is it fair of me to expect this?

Regards

Roger

[yorkshire]

Can anyone tell me if there is any legislation which forces manufacturers to show the sugar content on the food label.

No there isn't.

At the moment a nutritional panel is only mandatory if you make a claim about the nutrient content, e.g. Low fat, High fibre, etc.
If a panel is put on then the prescribed nutrition labelling must include either:


1. energy and the amounts of protein, carbohydrate and fat,

or

2. energy and the amounts of protein, carbohydrate, sugars, fat, saturates, fibre and sodium.

I believe that the EU are currently reviewing nutritional labelling requirements.

Is it fair of me to expect this?

Personally I believe that, if there is space on the packaging, nutritional information should always be given.

Edited by yorkshire, 05 January 2007 - 10:47 AM.

[cazyncymru]

Can anyone tell me if there is any legislation which forces manufacturers to show the sugar content on the food label. As a registered Diabetic sugar content in food is very important to me but I often find that many food labels do not show the percentage of sugar contained in all products.
Is it fair of me to expect this?

Regards

Roger

Roger

I don't think it's unfair at all. I too am a diabetic and i think the majority of my reading material these days tends to be packaging!! If we can label foods up with allergens, why not have a statement for sugar?

I dabble with a bit of packaging approval ( the joys of being in Group Technical) and legislation covers:
Jams where, unless the Big 8 nutritional is stated, must have "Total sugar content:Yg per 100g"

The Specificied Sugar Products (England) Regulation 2003 covers such specifics as descibtions eg Fructose

http://www.food.gov....pecsugaregs.pdf

Frankly i think that all labels should, if their not going to use an agreed industry traffic light system which would include sugar, have Big 8 nutritional on there to at least assist us in making an informed choice.
As a matter of interest i see that Tesco have started labelling some of their foods with GI rating.

Edited by cazyncymru, 05 January 2007 - 11:01 AM.

[KellyB]

Dear Roger,
Check this out : http://ec.europa.eu/...tech_issues.pdf. It looks like the E.U. is indeed reviewing the subject. But still there is a big difference between what you can declare and what you must declare on the label.
Personally I agree with you and I understand your concerns, since I had diabetis during pregnancy so I had to calculate sugars because I decided to change only my dietary habits and not take medicines as I was scared that they would harm the baby.
Since then, though the problem dissapeared after the birth of a completely healthy baby, I still have the habit -and a much more healthy diet, I should add. The only good thing is that the labels describe all the Ingredients, many times with their % (hidden sugar is the biggest problem I believe). Also, added sugar must also be declared as well as sweeteners such as aspartame etc.
I find that more or less the only thing one can do is take personal care of what he eats (and I believe that this does not concern only people with diabetis, allergies... etc. but all of us). I just hope that as with allergies, there will be a review for this subject also one day.
Rgds/Kelly B.

[Roger Athlon]

Thanks for the information. My next step is to contact 'Diabetes UK' to find out what their policy is and what are they doing to speed up the labelling process.

regards

[KellyB]

Dear Roger,
As I heard on the news today, the British are trying to do something about this matter, adding fat content with red colour on the labels, sugar content with orange colour and so on... but there seems to be a conflict with the producers, so this resulted to blue colour markings on the products, there also was a reporter asking people in super markets about this issue. Most of the people said that labelling is more confusing than enlightening and that this sort of labelling would be much easier since one look would be enough for them to know what they were going to consume. Maybe after all there will be a solution to this problem.
Rgds/Kelly B.

[Simon]

Dear Roger,
As I heard on the news today, the British are trying to do something about this matter, adding fat content with red colour on the labels, sugar content with orange colour and so on... but there seems to be a conflict with the producers, so this resulted to blue colour markings on the products, there also was a reporter asking people in super markets about this issue. Most of the people said that labelling is more confusing than enlightening and that this sort of labelling would be much easier since one look would be enough for them to know what they were going to consume. Maybe after all there will be a solution to this problem.
Rgds/Kelly B.

The UK Food Standards Agency provides useful information about food labelling on its Eat well website. The FSA's Traffic Light Labelling scheme has been adopted by Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and the Co-op. What you heard on the radio maybe sounded different to this Kelly?

Roger make sure you read the rules about labelling it may be helpful to you.

Regards,
Simon

[KellyB]

Dear Simon,
I suppose this is what I heard on the news (it was on the T.V. BTW). In any case, it's a good start!
BTW, sorry for the absence. My computer at home is OOO so I only use my office p/c to communicate, but not very often.
Regards/Kelly B.

[Simon]

Dear Simon,
I suppose this is what I heard on the news (it was on the T.V. BTW). In any case, it's a good start!
BTW, sorry for the absence. My computer at home is OOO so I only use my office p/c to communicate, but not very often.
Regards/Kelly B.

No problem Kelly, we're always happy to see you.

Simon

[mrfoodlaw]

Dear Simon,
I suppose this is what I heard on the news (it was on the T.V. BTW). In any case, it's a good start!
BTW, sorry for the absence. My computer at home is OOO so I only use my office p/c to communicate, but not very often.
Regards/Kelly B.

Sounds like you're referring to the GDA system - often marked in blue with % figure for certain nutrients - being plugged on a tv near you at the moment.

The industry (via the FDF) has started a campaign in response to the traffic light labelling campaign by the government. Unfortunately they have a slightly larger budget at their disposal, so you are likely to see more of these adverts than the 'official' ones from the food standards agency.

all very confusing for the consumer I'm sure you'll agree.

Returning to the diabetes issue; the official line from the fsa and diabetes UK is not to use the term 'diabetic' or similar on food labels; as essentially the healthy eating advice for those with diabetes is the same for the rest of the population.