Call to make food firms reveal health rating to tackle bad diets

Food firms should be forced to reveal how healthy or unhealthy their products are to help people consume a better diet, an industry boss has said.

- Denis Campbell

Ministers should require companies to publish an annual report so consumers can see how much of their sales is made up of dishes that contained too much fat, salt and sugar, Stefan Descheemaeker added.

Descheemaeker is chief executive of Nomad Foods, which owns popular brands including Birds Eye and Findus frozen foods and Goodfella's pizzas.

He told the Guardian mandatory publication of what proportion of each firm's sales were rated as healthy or unhealthy under government guidelines would kickstart a "nutrition arms race" in which manufacturers would vie with each other to make their products better for health.

He also urged Wes Streeting, the health secretary, to ensure that all tins and packets of foodstuffs carried traffic light-style labels.

This would also help tackle the obesity crisis because it would encourage people to choose more nutritious foods and shun less healthy options, he said.

Descheemaeker threw his weight behind growing calls - backed by the House of Lords and the Labour-friendly Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank - for a new tax on products containing excessive amounts of salt or sugar.