Justin King: Sainsbury's position on Multiple Traffic Light Labelling

22 August 2012

Sainsbury’s was the first retailer to introduce front of pack labelling combining GDAs and multiple traffic lights back in January 2005 and we are the most extensive adopter of this approach, with traffic lights and GDAs now found on more than 9,000 of our own brand products.

We have known for many years from customer feedback and from independent research that this combination is the best way to help our customers make informed choices about the food they buy.

We welcome Tesco's recognition of the overwhelming benefits to consumers of adding traffic light labelling. Over the years, other forms of colour coding have been used, but these have proved to be misleading for customers. The approach of those who do not use traffic light labelling has long been a barrier to achieving a consistent approach.

We hope this announcement will encourage other retailers and manufacturers to join us in working together to help achieve a consistent labelling for customers, to help them make healthier choices, wherever they shop.

We will continue to work with the government to help them achieve this objective.

Notes to editors

• Sainsbury's was the first UK retailer to apply front of pack Multiple Traffic Light (MTL) labelling in January 2005
• Sainsbury's is the most extensive adopter of Multiple Traffic Lights in the UK and the labels are now on around 9,000 Sainsbury's own brand products.
• Traffic lights are also used on all our recipe tip cards, on our online grocery website and in our customer magazine.
• Traffic lights also form a key part of our health strategy.  One of the commitments in our 20by20 Sustainability Plan is to decrease the proportion of red ratings on our own brand products
• Independent research by Ipsos Mori from May 2011 shows that 60% of our customers actively look for Multiple Traffic Light labels when they shop, and over 80% are influenced by them when deciding what to buy