Introducing a traffic light system for food packaging - clearly identifying the best and worst salty foods - would help boost nutrition in New Zealand, University of Otago researchers say.
Their conclusion came with results of a study released yesterday, examining the impact a colour-coded traffic light system for food packaging would have if implemented in New Zealand.
Food manufacturers were already required to list nutritional information on a panel on the back of products, and several had since taken to providing percentage daily intake labels on the front of packets.
One of the study's authors, Dr Rachael McLean, a research fellow at the University of Otago's Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research, said a large online panel was used to simulate in-store behaviour.
They compared available food labelling formats with a traffic light label, which identified food with a high, medium or low salt content by red, yellow or green lights.
The results showed both front-of-package labels improved the ability of consumers to identify food with high and low-salt content, but the traffic light system was more effective.
"In particular, the traffic light label enabled people to identify the high-salt product more easily," Dr McLean said.
"We believe that the simple colour-coded message of the traffic light labels make them easier to understand than the more detailed information in the other labels tested.
"Traffic light labels, if widely implemented, could be a useful tool to improve nutrition in New Zealand."
Traffic light labels were already in use voluntarily in the United Kingdom, and the latest findings were consistent with international research, she said.
Last year's Government-commissioned review of food labelling in New Zealand and Australia recommended simple front-of-pack labelling, including mandatory labelling for all foods making nutritional claims such as "low in salt".
Simple labelling would mean "children and adults with low literacy and numeracy skills can make informed, healthy choices easily".
The Legislative and Governance Forum on Food Regulation - a transtasman forum that met in December - considered the review panel's findings and agreed.
It planned to release its own report into front-of-pack labelling by June, and hoped to introduce a new system by the end of the year.