Tesco adds GI food labels, traffic lights
rank a product according to its position on the glycaemic index, a
system that measures the effects of food on blood sugar levels. The
move comes just a few days after the introduction of 'traffic
light' labelling for its own brand products designed to help
consumers assess fat, salt and sugar contents.
Tesco is calling the system 'a more moderate alternative to the Atkins Diet', and is targeting Britons' rush to slim down ahead of the summer months.
Using the Glycaemic Index (GI) to diet has already had a major impact on Australia's food industry and the UK market has been watching interest in the diet grow.
While low-carb foods are thought to be under development by a number of manufacturers, low-GI foods could be seen as a more 'sensible' way of reducing sugars and losing weight.
A low GI food will cause a small rise in blood sugar levels, whereas a higher GI food may trigger a large increase, causing glucose levels to rise rapidly. High GI foods are thought to raise risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes, both growing rapidly in many parts of the world.
And a study published this month in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition online (doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601992) found that dietary GI and glycemic load were positively associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors among Japanese women who consumed white rice as a staple food.
Tesco said it will label foods as having a low or medium GI rating depending on their effects on blood sugar levels.
There has been some debate on whether food makers should refer to glycemic index (GI) or glycemic load (GL) on labels. They both give a measure of how blood glucose levels rise immediately after consumption of a food, but GL is related to portion sizes, whereas GI allows for an easier comparison between different products.
Tesco said it has been working with leading food scientists at Oxford Brookes University to test the GI rating of everyday foods to ensure they are accurately labelled.
The scientists have tested 50 Tesco brand foods for their GI ratings, including bread, pasta, ready meals and cereals. The GI labels will start appearing on food products later this month and a further 200 everyday foods have now gone into testing labs to be rolled out with GI labels over the coming months.
Hamish Renton, Tesco GI project leader, said: "We've listened to customers and they have told us they want more information on the foods they buy. Many also want to control their weight but are worried about the health consequences of cutting out carbohydrates altogether."
"Gi means they can control their weight but they don't have to give up the foods they enjoy."
Tesco's Healthy Living range has sales of £450 million per year.
The GI labels come just a week after Tesco announced that it was to trial traffic light labels on its own label products - the first such scheme in the UK. Some 18 months in the making, the scheme will see Tesco label the front of packs with customer-friendly nutrition information using traffic lights to highlight Total Fat, Saturated Fat, Salt and Sugar with a red, amber or green colour code, alongside Calorie and Carbohydrate information.
The traffic light system was recommended last week by MPs as a potential means of combating the rising obesity problem.
The Tesco trial, which starts in September, will see hundreds of products - including ready meals, bakery and snacks - carrying the distinctive new labelling. If the trial proves popular and helpful to customers, Tesco could roll-out the initiative across its own brand range over the next two years.
Tesco director Tim Mason said: "We've listened to our customers and they find current labelling confusing. Many of them say they want to be able to make informed choices about the food they eat and they tell us that providing clear and easy to understand nutrition information will help them do this.
"Many customers don't have the time to study the back of packs in detail when they're shopping. We think the eye-catching traffic light system may be an easy, open and honest way of labelling our products so customers can see exactly what they're eating, allowing them to make an informed choice."
Mason said that customers who had taken part in the company's initial research had said that they saw a green label as a food they can eat lots of, while amber meant the product was OK and red designated a food they needed to think about.
"They didn't reject food with red lights, but used the traffic lights to help them make more informed choices," he said, suggesting that claims (by the British Retail Consortium and others) that the traffic light scheme would 'demonise' some food products may be overexaggerated.
Tesco was the first supermarket in 1987 to label all own-brand products with nutrition information as part of the Tesco Healthy Eating Programme, which saw 11 million leaflets distributed to customers that year. This initiative later led to the Healthy Eating range, with sales of £450 million a year, and the Healthy Living Club which now has over 200,000 members.
