January 2007 Archives

Good policies mean the bad guys have to lose

Quoth the BBC:

Some of the UK's biggest food manufacturers are launching a £4m campaign to promote nutritional labels. The labels show percentages of guideline daily amounts (GDA) of sugar, salt, fat and calories in each serving.

Other firms use red, amber and green labels - where green is good and red warns not to consume too much - approved by the Food Standards Agency.

But the 21 firms and retailers using the GDA system say people will not buy products with red labels on them.

Well, yes. That's the fucking point. If your food is unhealthy, then people shouldn't buy it. If labelling had no effect, people would object that it was bureaucracy gone mad. But if it does have an effect, the same people complain that it's infringing their commercial freedoms. This is why you should never, ever, listen to a Tory.

Edit (1st October 2008): For some reason, this post has been attracting spammers. So, comments disabled.