Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to mandate clear label markings on packaged food products to indicate excess a) salt, b) fat, c) sugar, d) trans and saturated fats and e) calories.

Food labelling legislation requires that pre-packaged food and drinks include a mandatory nutrition declaration, which provides information on energy, in kilojoules and kilocalories, and key nutrients, including fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt, in grams.

In addition, voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labelling, most commonly the multiple traffic light scheme, is widely used in the United Kingdom and provides clear, at-a-glance information on levels of energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt to support consumer understanding.

Information on trans fats is not included in the list of mandatory nutrients but there is a limit in legislation on the amount of trans fat permitted in food.

For these reasons, we have no plans to mandate labelling on packaged food products to indicate excess salt, fat, sugar, or calories.