Welsh worries on traffic lights

- Published: 01 December, 2009

Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) has raised concerns that shoppers could be being misled by plans for a traffic light system of labelling for meat.

HCC said it is worried that people could be wrongly turned away from eating Welsh Lamb and Welsh Beef, because of the Food Standards Agency’s proposed new traffic light rating system, which states whether foods are low (green), medium (amber) or high (red) in ingredients such as fat, sugar and salt.

Consumer executive Elwen Roberts said: “The traffic light system does not provide shoppers with enough information to choose a healthier diet. For example, lean beef mince has only 5% fat, but is still in the same category as average beef mince, which is at 16%.

“This means that people are not being encouraged to buy the healthier option because they cannot easily see the difference.”

Fully trimmed cuts of Welsh beef also fall under the amber category, added HCC, despite being just 0.2g outside the green category.

Roberts has called for a “better and fairer system” to be used on food.