While the founder and managing director of SumoSalad, Luke Baylis, is throwing the support of his salad franchise behind the federal government’s proposed Traffic Light Food Labelling system, he says a number of improvements should be made.

If the system goes ahead as expected, it will see simple ratings – perhaps a red, amber and green light system – placed on food packaging, indicating the levels of fat, salt and sugar in the item and making it easier for consumers to understand how healthy their meal choices are.

“SumoSalad supports the federal government’s implementation of any initiative that highlights high amounts of fat and sugar in everyday foods such as the proposed Traffic Light Food Labelling system,” Baylis said.

He urged the government to look to overseas markets and note their learnings, and adds that for the Australian system to be a success it should be mandatory, not voluntary which is how the system could first be introduced.

“If the government can ensure that all food manufacturers and retailers operate the same labelling systems, consumers will not be left confused with mixed messages,” he said.

Baylis believes the system could also confuse customers about what’s healthy and what’s not, with certain items falling into the ‘red’ category, when they’re in fact healthier that other alternatives.

“The Traffic Light Food Labelling system is extremely simplistic, and at times can be very confusing. For example a fetta salad may get more red lights than a packet of chips despite cheese being a much healthier choice, and sultanas would receive a red light on sugar that was comparable to a bar of chocolate.

“While the Traffic Light Food Labelling offers an ‘at a glance’ rating on levels of fat, salt, and sugar on all packaging, it only reveals part of the picture — after all there is good and bad fat, natural sugar versus processed sugar, the list of confusion continues,” he said.

“We hope that the federal government also takes into account other things that affect consumers’ choices when deciding what to eat. Will the Traffic Light Food Labelling system also appear on adverts and Point Of Sale materials? In my opinion, the proposed Traffic Light system is a quick fix to a larger problem.”