What are Traffic Light Labels?

Have you ever heard of traffic light labels?

The British government is in the process of implementing a ‘traffic light’ labeling system for food that is supposed to take effect during the summer of 2013. The idea behind the new system is to make it easier to read and understand nutrition labels.

The system would use color-coded information, where green indicates low levels, yellow indicates moderate and red means high levels (and generally means bad).

A big concern by many is that the traffic light labels don’t provide a total picture for the health value of the food. For example, high-fat foods like nuts are considered healthy, as are many fruits that are high in sugar. However, each of those items will have a red label because of their high fat and sugar content (even though the sugar in fruit is natural sugar).

What do you think? Will the system help or hurt the food industry? Or will it just cause even more confusion where food is concerned?