Food Labelling

[whiffey]

I am watching the news, about 'traffic light' labelling of food etc. When I buy food I ALWAYS check the fat content per 100g, and I stay below 10%, except for the occasional and deliberate treat. It really isn't difficult.

Do some shoppers really not bother to do this ? Do we really need the supermarkets to tell us what is good for us and what is not ? How long does it take to flip the packet over and read the nutirtion guide ?

[Ethel]

Everyone is different.

Some people would be horrified at the very idea of buying the sort of processed food that needs nutritional guides, labelling and a list of ingredients.

Just how difficult is it to buy fresh ingredients and follow a recipe from a book?

[nickmo]

For 'some people', insert -'French' or 'Italian' or 'Spanish' or - - get the picture?

The gullible British shopper is all too hapy to get a meal pumped full of chemicals to preserve it, flavour it, colour it, stabilise it, thicken it and all from a plastic tray that means you don't have to touch the food - perish the thought, what actually touch food.........?

Have a look in a good cooks kitchen - spot the egg phospholipid (lecithin) E322, or the jar of phosphatidylethanolamine - from soya (probably GM stuff as well) to go with the E322 . .?

All about knowing what to do with pastry, or meat, or veg. - or that you are going to eat the food there and then - not pack it, drive it 500 miles, store it for 3 months then bring it back and flog it at a silly price - and know that 20% of food bought in the UK is thrown away without use - not worry too much about filling the 'thing' with additives.

Now where's my pot of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (E466 to you) to thicken up my yoghurt . . ?

Nutrition guide? Need a bloomin' degree in chemistry first, pet. . .

[Ethel]

Nickmo - I'm not Italian, French or Spanish.

I'm as English as they come and 95% of my diet is home cooked food from fresh ingredients. Meat from the local butcher, veg from the local greengrocer, eggs from the farm, fish from the fishmonger who comes in his van.

Sadly I can no longer cope with 'growing my own'.

Even my bread is homemade :)

[harriman]

I wish I could eat at your house Ethel.

I used to grow my own veg/fruit and cook from scratch but that was before I had children.
Now that i have 4 of the little blighters its even more important that i provide fresh, wholesome food (an ideal i would aspire to).
Unfortunately, like many other modern mums, I work, am involved in Brownies and a Junior Cricket club, take kids to various activities etc etc etc.
This means that we do resort to something that can be taken out of the freezer, shoved in the oven and be ready to consume within 30 minutes.
Anyway, I digress, whilst some people may know that a food with 10% fat or less is a low fat food, other people may prefer the highly visible 'traffic light system' of labelling, simply stating whether a food is Low, Medium or High in that particular category

[Rock'n'Roll]

It would appear that a lot of people don't bother reading ingredients,or possibly understanding them,so I think anything that will help notify shoppers of salt/fat/sugar contents must be a step in the right direction.
On other issue,fortunately I'm still growing my own veg,will soon be going out back to dig a few spuds/carrots and pick some peas.Can't beat it

[Goodsoulette]

I like the idea. If people know they can eat as much of the green stuff as they want, they might be better educated. They need to start teaching children at school how to cook properly, and about nutrition Gillian Mckeithy style. I was fortunante to have a very healthy diet as a kid, but when I got to secondary school in the 90s and home ec version of apple crumble was buy a tin of stewed fruit and a bag of crumble mix, I knew this was so so wrong.

I am similar to you whiffey except I dont go over 4% fat but now I am vegan thats pretty hard to do anyway.