Traffic light labelling must not be de-railed

The figures were there before. What the traffic light labelling does is to grade foods are low medium or high in certain components that may be harmful if consumed in excess.

I am supportive of traffic light labelling, but disappointed by the slow adoption and EU interference.

Introduction of traffic light labelling does not remove nutritional information presented in figures, but it does offer useful information in a simple visual form. I very much agree that the figures should be much larger, so that they can be read before purchase.

I find it quite helpful when supermarkets sell magnifying specs. I have “borrowed” them on quite a few occasions when print is too small.!!!

Jo Swinson is the Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs. She has been involved with supermarket pricing and unit pricing campaigns and featured in Which? Conversation.

Let us hope then she reads ‘The Grocer’ as well as Which? Conversation. With a general election on the horizon we may look forward to some positive action.

uncle festa – Please can you explain why pasteurisation causes lactose intolerance.

Milk pasteurization damages the delicate enzyme lactase, which is required to digest the milk sugar lactose. As babies, all of us produce lactase. That’s how we’re able to digest breast milk. But in some people, lactase production declines massively by around age four, when, being fully weaned, we would have no more need for it. When drinking raw milk, this doesn’t pose a problem: the milk comes with its own lactase to digest the lactose. The problem occurs when drinking pasteurized milk. Having no lactase in either the milk or the person drinking it leads to digestive distress and diarrhea, a condition called lactose intolerance. And yet, many people who are lactose intolerant not only tolerate raw milk but thrive on it.
Hope this helps.
P/s. Unpasteurised milk is best sourced from organic herds of jersey and Guernsey cows that are fed 52 weeks per year on pastureland (this may mean silage fed in the winter) when conditions are too inclement to keep the herd(s) out or for the grass to grow sufficiently well.

Sorry, but that’s not correct, though it does appear on at least one website.

Lactase is not present in milk, but is produced by humans in the small intestine. If lactase was present in milk, it would be inactivated by stomach acid.

Some milk is treated with lactase to convert most of the lactose to glucose and galactose, making it acceptable to those with lactose intolerance. That is done before the milk is sold.

I was brought up on a farm. I left to go to university and stopped drinking raw milk. After a while I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance and still suffer from it to date, as does my wife, some of my children and their husbands and wives.

After a number of years I found a supplier of raw milk. I do not suffer lactose problems when I drink it alone or in beverages, neither do my family.

After speaking to people who suffered from the same problems, those that tried the raw milk report no effects if they drink raw milk.

It seems your main point is to argue. Sorry go somewhere else.

I think there is more than one reason for lactose intolerance.

For years, milk would occasionally make me feel sick accompanied by a horrible taste in my mouth. I had the same sick feeling and taste after drinking soya milk that had gone off (drunk in strong coffee so not noticeable until smelling the container). Also the milk did not smell quite right.

Foods that are not fit for human consumption are often fed to animals. Do cows get fed soya? Does it somehow get into the milk?

Indeed, and as a scientist I am not keen on seeing incorrect information being disseminated.

Those who are lactose intolerant generally produce less lactase than normal rather than having a complete deficiency of the enzyme. Drinking lots of milk could induce the symptoms of lactose intolerance in adults that don’t normally have a problem.

As a scientist? Snap, the difference is I evaluate. Where as you believe what you are told, by the big pharma and big industry.

Don’t let facts like it works stand in your way, lets have double blind placebo tests without ensuring those tests are carried out on the correct recipients. Stick to your FDA food rules they seem to impress you.

It is well worth considering other causes of lactose intolerance. (1) Primary the most common which only affects adults is genetic. (2) Caused by injury to the small intestine usually during infancy. (3) Caused by gastroenteritis, diarrhoea, chemotherapy, internal parasites, other environmental causes. (4) Congenital lactose deficiency is a very rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder that prevents lactase expression from birth – common in Finland. People with this disorder from birth cannot digest breast milk.

Based on the above I would wager that ingesting unpasteurised milk would most probably be a cause rather than a remedy but if I had the problem I would certainly investigate the causal facts rather than supposition, especially if I had been raised in a farming environment.

Apologies………you may have difficulty in locating the above website. You could try intolerance

To find the page that Beryl is referring to, go to the NHS Choices website and search for: “Lactose intolerance – Causes”

It’s good information.

Reverting back to topic – a definite red traffic light label would be appropriately and justifiably attached to any product containing unpasteurised milk in my opinion.

Unfortunately, the potential hazards of certain foods does not merit any visual warning like the traffic light system. Perhaps it should. Uncle festa mentions carcinogens in bacon and I have posted numerous comments about this.

Pasteurisation of milk is a worthy contribution to food safety:

From Wikipedia: “Distribution of raw milk is illegal in Scotland. While it is legal in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the only registered producers are in England.[24] About 200 producers sell raw, or “green top” milk direct to consumers, either at the farm, at a farmers’ market, or through a delivery service. The bottle must display the warning “this product has not been heat-treated and may contain organisms harmful to health”, and the dairy must conform to higher hygiene standards than dairies producing only pasteurised milk.

As it is only legal to supply unpasteurized milk direct to consumers, it is illegal to be sold on the High Street, via shops or supermarkets.”

Kelloggs is not planning to use traffic light labelling, as far as I know, John.

The worst example of deceptive colour I have seen was on an M&S ham sandwich, where the red label for salt content was salmon pink. The next time I looked, the labelling had been improved.

Supermarket soups of various brands are often just below the threshold for red labelling for salt content.