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Panel Recommends Changes to Fight Obesity

1 hour, 31 minutes ago

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By BETH GARDINER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - Food companies should use a "traffic light" system of red, orange and green symbols to help shoppers quickly determine how healthy their products are, a British parliamentary committee recommended Thursday.

In a report that criticized the government, food manufacturers and advertisers for failing to do enough to fight obesity, the House of Commons Health Committee recommended the industry be given three years to voluntarily implement measures including the informational symbols.

If companies fail to do so voluntarily, the government should require them to, the lawmakers said.

The committee also urged companies to withdraw junk food commercials aimed at children, particularly those that use athletes and other celebrities to sell foods like chocolate and potato chips.

It said obesity rates in Britain had quadrupled in 25 years and three-fourths of adult Britons were either overweight or obese. The problem costs $13.3 billion a year, the committee said.

Under the traffic light labeling system, high-calorie foods would have a red light on their labels and healthier, low-cal options would get a green light.

The Tesco supermarket chain announced it would try the system on some foods, including snacks and prepared meals, starting in September. It said it would use the labels to warn shoppers which foods were high in fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar.

"We've listened to our customers, and they find current labeling confusing," said Tesco director Tim Mason. "We think the eye-catching traffic light system may be an easy, open and honest way of labeling our products so customers can see exactly what they're eating."

The health committee also said most British children were not physically active for the recommended two hours per week and suggested the target be boosted to three hours. It recommended schoolchildren's body mass index, a measure of the amount of fat on a person's body, be tested annually.

The government should launch a public education campaign to inform Britons of the risks caused by being too heavy, the report said. A Cabinet-level public health committee should be set up to coordinate anti-obesity efforts, it said.

"Our inquiry is a wake-up call for government to show that the causes of ill health need to be tackled by many departments, not just health," said committee chairman David Hinchliffe.

The committee did not recommended imposing a "fat tax" on unhealthy foods, as some in the food industry had feared.

Health Secretary John Reid said he shared the committee's worries about obesity but tackling the problem was the responsibility of individuals, and the food and exercise industries, as well as government.

"We at the department of health are already working closely with colleagues ... to encourage and enable people to eat more nutritious food and take more exercise," he said.

Industry had a mixed response to the report.

"The entire food and drink chain, from farmers to caterers, is clear that our industry must be a part of the solution," said Martin Paterson of the Food and Drink Federation. "However, the obesity problem is complex and multifaceted. There are no quick fixes."

The British Retail Consortium said the proposed labeling system would be confusing, since some foods like meat and dairy were high in calories and could appear to be unhealthy according to the traffic light.

Sue Davies of the Consumers' Association said the committee's suggestion that the food industry get three years to regulate itself voluntarily was too generous.

"We've seen little evidence to date that industry is ready to accept this responsibility," she said.