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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Adopter companies

GDA icons

GDA labels

GDAs explained

There are 92 adopters (Feb 2010) of the GDA labelling scheme: five retailers, three foodservice organisations, two convenience store chains and 82 manufacturing companies. The adopters have introduced easily recognisable GDA icon labels, which feature prominently on the front of pack of over 20,000 product lines. This amounts to a massive 50% of all UK retail food and drink packs.

Percentages are included because they quickly and easily clarify the nutritional content of each food product in the context of a person's whole diet.

This allows you to make informed comparisons between products so you can select the ones that best suit your needs.

Nutrition labelling is voluntary, unless a nutrition claim is made, so it is fine to have Big 4 (eg, energy, protein, carbohydrate and fat) in the nutrition table. However we recommend that the full GDA label (all 5 icons) is represented on the label, and not just two GDA icons. FDF has produced a style guide to ensure labelling consistency across the products and brands.

If you have a small pack, FDF and CIAA (the European Confederation of the Food and drink industries) recommendation is to simply add the Energy GDA icon (calories). This is what you would see on the chocolate or cereal bars for example.

Having two icons would give the impression that you are “cherry picking” the nutrients that are more convenient for you rather than making as much information available to consumers as possible.

If you want to know the contents of the drink for the purposes of the back of pack nutrition table, you will need to get it analysed by a food technologist like Leatherhead Food International or Campden BRI.

You will need to calculate the nutritional value of your drink per 100ml and per portion/pack depending how big your bottles are. You can then use our style guide for GDAs as a guideline to develop on your pack a visually consistent GDA front-of-pack scheme.

GDA labels show the level of calories, sugars, fat, saturates (saturated fat) and salt contained in a suggested portion of food and, more importantly, tell you what percentage of your Guideline Daily Amount for calories, sugars, fat, saturates (saturated fat) and salt, each portion comprises.

This enables you to build a picture of what you are eating in the context of your whole diet and make a better informed choice about what you are eating.

GDA labelling is based on per portion information whilst Traffic Light labelling is applied per 100g. Combining the two approaches across all categories provides some confusing results.

For example a 10g portion of a spread containing 0.2g of salt would have a red label for salt, whilst a ready meal containing 2.2g of salt would have an amber label. Another example is ketchup, which would be labelled red for sugar (based on 100g), but a normal 20g serving would only contain 5% of the GDA and lets face it, who eats 100g of ketchup in one go?

Consumers pay more attention to red than green. Food Standards Agency (FSA) research showed that if a product had more than two red labels, consumers would reject it as too unhealthy. While this may be the desired result, it would also mean consumers may reject many products that include a significant amount of essential nutrients such as cheese, yoghurt or nuts. If GDAs are colour coded, consumers are more likely to make a snap judgement based on the colour of the GDA rather than the actual GDA percentage.

Similarly, it may be difficult for a consumer to interpret the overall nutritional 'worth' of a product that displays, for example, two red lights and two green lights, even if this sits alongside GDA values.

Within the FSA scheme colour bands are wide, so a product would have an amber colour for salt, if it contained anything between 0.3g and 1.5g per 100g. A product with 5% of the GDA for salt, would therefore be coded the same as something with 25% of the GDA for salt, so shoppers may not spot the healthier option.

Traffic Light colour codes are recommended by the FSA for certain composite foods and they publicly acknowledge that they are not intended for use across all categories.

The food industry have demonstrated that GDA labels are effective in their current form and adding a further level of complexity by overlaying colours may not serve to simplify them at all. We believe that the key to making consumers more food literate lies in encouraging them to look at what's inside the food they are buying and think about it in the context of their whole diet.

GDA stands for Guideline Daily Amount and is the recommended amount of specific nutrients an adult should consume each day.

GDAs and nutrition information have been available on the back of packs for many years.

Therefore, introducing a shorthand version of this information on the front of packs was a logical step for industry in seeking to make labelling clearer and more accessible for people.

The use of GDAs on food labels provides an accurate means for people to tell if a product contains a higher or lower amount of a particular nutrient, compared to another product. This enables small but positive changes to their diet.

Being able to quickly identify the levels of nutrients in a product also makes it simple for you to focus on the nutrients of interest to you, e.g. calories, fat or sugars. Again you can then see more clearly how to make simple changes to improve your diet.

More information about Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs) explained.