New nutritional labelling system approved by government

The Department of Health has given final approval to a new front-of-pack nutrition labelling system that will appear on food products across the UK.

This consistent new system will combine red, amber and green colour-coding with nutritional information to show how much fat, saturated fat, salt, sugar and calories are contained in various foods.

Mars, Nestle, PepsiCo, McCain Foods and Premier Foods have all confirmed they will be implementing this system, as have supermarket chains Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, the Co-operative and Waitrose.

This follows research showing that people currently find it difficult and confusing to make sense of the different nutrition labels on food products.

Public health minister Anna Soubry said: "By having all major retailers and manufacturers signed up to the consistent label, we will all be able to see at a glance what is in our food."

This initiative has been welcomed by the British Heart Foundation as a move that will help to improve heart health across the UK.