Traffic-light labels could reduce population intakes of calories, total fat, saturated fat, and sodium
Open accessAbstract
Traffic-light labelling has been proposed as a public health intervention to improve the dietary intakes of consumers. OBJECTIVES: to model the potential impact of avoiding foods with red traffic lights on the label on the energy, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, and sugars intakes of Canadian adults. METHODS: Canadian adults aged 19 and older (n = 19,915) who responded to the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), Cycle 2.2. The nutrient levels in foods consumed by Canadians in CCHS were profiled using the United Kingdom's criteria for traffic light labelling. Whenever possible, foods assigned a red traffic light for one or more of the profiled nutrients were replaced with a similar food currently sold in Canada, with nutrient levels not assigned any red traffic lights. Average intakes of calories, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, and sugars under the traffic light scenario were compared with actual intakes of calories and these nutrients (baseline) reported in CCHS. RESULTS: Under the traffic light scenario, Canadian's intake of energy, total fat, saturated fat, and sodium were significantly reduced compared to baseline; sugars intakes were not significantly reduced. Calorie intake was reduced by 5%, total fat 13%, saturated fat 14%, and sodium 6%. CONCLUSION: Governments and policy makers should consider the adoption of traffic light labelling as a population level intervention to improve dietary intakes and chronic disease risk.
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The WTO ruling should assist other countries, including the UK, Ireland, France, New Zealand, Slovenia, and Hungary that have enacted SP, and may signal a green light for other countries to implement similar policies, not only for tobacco but also for alcohol and unhealthy foods.
“The WTO ruling should assist other countries, including the UK, Ireland, France, New Zealand, Slovenia, and Hungary that have enacted SP and may signal a green light for other countries to implement similar policies, not only for tobacco but also for alcohol and unhealthy foods (Emrich, Qi, Lou, & L’Abbe, 2017).”
From Advancing progressive health policy to reduce NCDs amidst international commercial opposition: Tobacco standardised packaging in Australia (2018) · cites this paper as Emrich, Qi, Lou, & L’Abbe, 2017
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Cites
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Crosbie, E., Thomson, G., Freeman, B., & Bialous, S. (2018) · Global Public Health · doi:10.1080/17441692.2018.1443485 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
- Authors
- Emrich, T. E., Qi, Y., Lou, W. Y., & L’Abbe, M. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2017-02-09
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- e0171188
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5300258
- OpenAlex
- W2587264814
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 4
- FWCI
- 7.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship)
- Cancer Care Ontario and Canadian Institutes for Health Research (Training Grant in Population Intervention for Chronic Disease Prevention: A Pan-Canadian Program (Grant #53893))
- University of Toronto (Earle W. McHenry Endowed Research Chair)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
- Keywords
- traffic light labeling, food labeling, dietary intake, energy intake, saturated fat, sodium intake, total fat intake, sugar consumption, public health interventions, food choice, Canadian adults, chronic disease risk
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Energy Intake, Canada, Color, Dietary Carbohydrates, Dietary Fats, Fatty Acids, Feeding Behavior, Female, Food Labeling, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Sodium, Dietary, Consumer Health Information, Young Adult
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