Sainsbury’s launches GI labelling system
Nutritional guidelines added to selected products
Sainsbury’s is launching a GI labelling system as part of its response to the goverment drive for improved nutritional information on products.
Sainsbury’s GI logo will appear on the front of packs to indicate products that are low or medium GI, as part of its new Wheel of Health labelling scheme.
The Glycaemic Index (GI) is a ranking of carbohydrate foods based on the rate at which they raise blood sugar levels. Each food is given a value which can be termed as low, medium or high.
[img r]Sainsburyswheelofhealth.jpg[/img]The colour-coded Wheel of Health began appearing on Sainsbury’s food labels from January. It tells consumers how much fat, saturated fat, calories, salt and sugar is in each serving.
Sainsbury’s will be adding a simple GI logo onto a range of healthier products that feature ‘greens’ or ‘ambers’ on the wheel. The logo will appear on products such as Be Good to Yourself sandwiches – for example: egg and cress = low GI, tuna and cucumber = medium GI. It will also appear on a range of fresh and frozen ready meals, breakfast cereals and some everyday ingredients like pasta and rice.
Amy Cashmore, senior brand manager at Sainsbury’s, said: “We have been working losely with one of the UK’s leading GI experts Dr Gary Frost, head of the Nutrition and Dietetic Research Group at Imperial College, London, to identify which products should be tested and labelled. The rigorous testing identifies the GI value so we can label our products low or medium GI.
[img l]sainsburyscheckoutnew.jpg[/img]”The scientific evidence is increasingly pointing towards the importance of low GI foods as part of a healthy diet. Research shows that people who eat a low GI diet are at less risk of developing a number of chronic diseases.
“However, it is important that the GI concept is adopted as part of a healthy diet; we all still need to limit our fat and salt intake and eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. This balance is reflected in Sainsbury’s labelling on packs. The new GI logo will appear on products that offer only green and amber segments on the wheel of health, so customers can clearly identify healthy products with a lower GI.” More GI labelled products will be rolled out over the next few months.
Market leader Tesco announced this week that its own label food products will feature ‘signposts’ which display the amount of salt, fat, saturated fat, sugar and calories contained per serving in grams.
The government, through the Food Standards Agency, has proposed a universal ‘traffic lights’ labelling system. The fact that different retailers are opting for their own schemes has led consumer groups to argue that consumers could be even more confused.
