DT News - UK - British Dental Health Foundation supports food-labelling campaign

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 14 August 2012

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RUGBY, UK: The British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF) has announced its support of the British Heart Foundation and the Children’s Food Campaign, who have submitted a proposal on front-of-pack food labelling to the government. The foundation believes that such a regulation would also have a positive impact on oral health.

A few of the UK's biggest food manufacturers have launched a campaign to promote nutritional labels which show percentages of guideline daily amounts (GDA) of sugar, salt, fat and calories in each serving. Other firms use a traffic-light system where green is good and red warns not to consume too much. The system is approved by the Food Standards Agency.

The British Heart Foundation and the Children's Food Campaign want the government to recommend a single front-of-pack nutrition-labelling scheme incorporating traffic-light colours, which are easier for people, especially children, to understand, and can be used to teach children about healthy diets.

The BDHF supports the proposal that the clear labelling afforded by a traffic-light approach is the most appropriate format for food education, enabling parents, teachers and carers to teach children to make healthy choices.

According to the foundation, poor diet continues to be a significant factor of the level of poor oral health in the UK. By introducing the traffic-light system, Chief Executive of the BDHF Dr Nigel Carter OBE believes there could be a significant impact on future levels of oral health. “The foundation fully supports the response put forward on the issue of food labelling. Greater consistency in front-of-pack food labelling across the UK could have a considerably beneficial impact on the public. We would welcome a recommendation for all food companies to consistently apply a scheme including traffic-light colours, as recommended by the Food Standards Agency.”

“For many years, dentists have criticised the large amounts of sugars in many foods, to which they are often added as a cheap bulking agent. From the point of view of oral health, it is the frequency of sugar consumption, rather than quantity that is the main concern, as we have moved from three square meals a day to seven to ten snack attacks, many of which will contain sugar.”

According to Carter, looking for hidden sugars—often listed as sucrose, maltose, glucose, and fructose—can help the public cut down on how often they consume sugary foods and drinks and help with both dental health and obesity. The BDHF believes the traffic-light system would give consumers the information they need to make fully informed choices on the types of foods and drinks they buy.

“We might not see an immediate upturn in levels of oral health in patients, but it will have a potentially large impact in the future,” Carter commented.

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