The Obesity Policy Coalition is a group of leading public health agencies that are concerned about the impact of overweight and obesity in Australia, particularly in children. And this week they launched a free app for your iphone, ipad or android – The Traffic Food Light Tracker.
The Traffic Light Food Tracker demonstrates how traffic light labelling can help you make healthier choices. The app gives a traffic light rating based on the amount of total fat, saturated fat, sugars and sodium per 100g –green for low, amber for medium and red for high.
Go to you pantry and pull out some random items. Come back and put those numbers into the widget above and see the results.
Simple right?
But there has been a push for manufacturers to actually print traffic light food labelling on their products.
Even though there has been some criticism about the labelling move.
When I read things like I immediately ask why. Surely it would have cost less to just make the necessary changes to the packaging and be done with it. What is there to be afraid of?
For mine, you can never have too much information; not about our health. And quite frankly, as the customer I have every right to full and frank disclosure.
This article by Choice has an example of traffic light labelling and what we should look for in our labelling. It also has a list of daily requirement for the average 8 year old child.
This link to the NSW Food Authority website and this link to the Healthy Food Guide website gives daily requirement for adults.
