Kellogg declares GDA 'victory'

LONDON - Kellogg has urged proponents of traffic-light nutritional labelling to concede defeat following the widespread adoption of guide--line daily amounts (GDAs) by European and UK food manufacturers.

Kellogg declares GDA 'victory'

Managing director Greg Peterson said it was time to stop 'rehashing' the arguments in the labelling debate because GDAs are now displayed in 27 European states, while 91% of UK consumers are aware of them.

He added that GDAs, the system used by Kellogg on its packaging, was the favoured choice of the majority of the food industry.

According to Peterson, 60% of consumers use GDAs to ascertain a product's nutritional content. Of those, 96% said the system had helped them choose a product lower in fat or salt.

'Let's end the debate around GDAs. Let's move away from it,' he said at Kellogg's annual press conference last week. 'Frankly, consumers are using the labels they see out there now,' he added.

The Food Standards Agency, which designed the traffic-light system, has commissioned research into both schemes, but no result on this is expected until 2009.

Separately, Kellogg has signed double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes to front its £2m 'Wake up to breakfast' campaign.

Holmes will feature in TV and print ads from next month as the cereal maker attempts to capitalise on interest in the Beijing Olympic Games. She will appear on packaging from this month.

Last year, the campaign was fronted by former footballer Ian Wright, nanny Jo Frost and TV presenter Philippa Forrester.

Traffic light versus GDAs

A Farming and Countryside Education study conducted last year among 1000 secondary-school children found that 85% of them recognised the GDA label, while 69% recognised the traffic-light scheme.

A second survey, commissioned by the Food & Drink Federation, asked readers of Take a Break to identify and interpret sample GDA labels. Of the 4000 respondents, 84% had heard of the scheme, 93% found them easy to understand and 86% interpreted their nutritional information correctly.

In January, the Food Standards Agency launched an outdoor campaign in support of the traffic-light scheme.

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