Kellogg's have announced that they will roll out the UK government's 'traffic light' food labelling system on its packaging from January 2019. Dr Oyinlola Oyedobe argues that this is a good first step, but there is more that they can still do to help their customers stay healthy.

She comments: “Food labelling has been shown to increase the number of people choosing to buy healthier foods in robust studies (eg: meta-analysis of 9 randomised controlled trials). Traffic light labelling was the most effective type of food label examined in these studies. For this reason, it is welcome news that Kellogg’s will be adding traffic light labelling to 80% of their cereals by 2020.

“However, there is only so much that labelling can achieve- it requires the consumer to be educated enough to make sense of the labels, and to be motivated enough to want to do so. While enabling consumers to make healthy choices, food labels work best for the people who are often already the healthiest.

“There are further changes Kellogg’s could make, for example: reducing the sugar and salt in all their cereals, or particularly those targeted at children, which would benefit the health of all their customers.”

29 November 2018

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Peter Thorley

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