New traffic light supermarket receipt
Customers won’t want to scrunch up their receipts for too much longer because a new receipt system will allow shoppers to view a quick nutritional tally of everything they just purchased.
The traffic light supermarket receipt adds up the total calories, sugar, fat and salt in a shopping trip and scores them on the nutritional value.
A green score will let shoppers know that their food choices are “good”, amber for “so-so” and red will advise customers to “rethink” what they have put in their shopping trolley.
Nutrition academics backing the system believe it could “revolutionise” food shopping as people will get an instant gauge to the nutritional value of the food they are consuming.
"Current evidence suggests that whilst consumers generally find the traffic light nutrition labelling useful, there are limitations, particularly when considering a person’s overall nutritional intake," said University of Birmingham sport and exercise nutrition lecturer, Matthew Cole, in a statement,
"A new receipt-based system could bridge this gap, and provide an additional tool to help aid consumers in their food purchases, providing an overall summary of their entire food purchases."
Matthew’s research reveals that a traffic light summary would help most shoppers make healthier purchasing decisions, which most say is a key consideration while shopping.
The traffic light receipts were crafted in 2016 by Hayden Peeks with aim of “trying to solve the obesity epidemic”.
"With this information, the complexity of the issue is dismantled and in one simple graphic anybody can get a good idea of how healthy their diet is," Hayden said.
The United Kingdom uses a traffic light system on individual packaging.
The Australian Medical Association and the Cancer Council have supported the traffic light system as the easiest and most effective way of labelling food.