Healthy Food made Easy!

Hi folks,

Great news yesterday – the government are standardising the nutrition information on across all foods! Currently those of us that try to keep an eye on our health are made to scrutinise the packet of each different food manufacturer to decipher if 20g of sugar is per 100g or per serving (which could be any amount) & whether that’s high or low. Some don’t even distinguish between the good fats & bad fats or starchy carbs & sugar carbs. Although the original introduction of food labelling was a positive step, it really needs making less confusing for the shopper.

Adopting this new food labelling system is voluntary for manufactures, to make it compulsory all European countries would have to agree & that would take forever. However today talks are going on & the government has faith that our food industry will take responsibility & use this proposed system. Due to commence in the summer of 2013, it will be a lot easier to be healthy. One type of nutrition label across all foods will make it easier to quantify actually what we eat, how much we eat, & to compare between brands.

The new labelling will look like this….

It uses the traffic-light colour system for those who just want a quick glance, & also shows the finer details for those of us who want a more in-depth approach.

Bringing this concept in to an occupational setting, could our companies benefit themselves & their workforce by clearly displaying similar information?  What about green, orange & red sections to the canteen or even green, orange & red coloured vending machines dotted around so that people are clear on what they’re buying?

Hopefully this will kick-start a healthy 2013!

James