Traffic Light Label Checker

How to Use the Traffic Light Checker

1. Choose food or drink. Foods are judged per 100g and drinks per 100ml, with different limits.
2. Enter the amounts of fat, saturates, total sugars and salt from the nutrition table. If your table gives sodium instead of salt, enter the sodium in milligrams and we convert it.
3. Add the energy if you want it shown. It is not colour coded.
4. Add a portion size (optional) to see the amounts and percentage of the reference intake per portion, and to apply the per portion rule.
5. Read the colours and the reason under each one, then download the image or print it.

What the Colours Mean

Each of the four nutrients gets its own colour. Green means low, amber means medium and red means high. These are the Food Standards Agency limits for foods, per 100g:

• Fat: green 3.0g or less, amber above 3.0g up to 17.5g, red above 17.5g
• Saturates: green 1.5g or less, amber above 1.5g up to 5.0g, red above 5.0g
• Total sugars: green 5.0g or less, amber above 5.0g up to 22.5g, red above 22.5g
• Salt: green 0.3g or less, amber above 0.3g up to 1.5g, red above 1.5g

Drinks have lower limits, per 100ml:

• Fat: green 1.5g or less, amber above 1.5g up to 8.75g, red above 8.75g
• Saturates: green 0.75g or less, amber above 0.75g up to 2.5g, red above 2.5g
• Total sugars: green 2.5g or less, amber above 2.5g up to 11.25g, red above 11.25g
• Salt: green 0.3g or less, amber above 0.3g up to 0.75g, red above 0.75g

Government advice is that red means a high level, so try to cut down or have it less often or in smaller amounts. Amber is medium, and foods that are mostly amber are fine to eat most of the time. Green is low.

The Per Portion Rule

Colours are mainly decided per 100g or 100ml. But for a food portion over 100g, or a drink portion over 150ml, there is an extra rule: if a nutrient in one portion is above the portion limit, it must be red, whatever the amount per 100g or 100ml.

For foods the portion limits are fat 21g, saturates 6g, sugars 27g and salt 1.8g. For drinks they are fat 10.5g, saturates 3g, sugars 13.5g and salt 0.9g. These are 30% of the reference intake for foods and 15% for drinks. Enter a portion size and the checker applies this rule for you and tells you when it changed a colour.

Why Energy Has No Colour

Energy, in kJ and kcal, is shown on a neutral background. The guidance says red, amber and green colour coding should not be applied to energy. The checker follows that, so the energy box is always grey.

Salt and Sodium

UK labels give salt, not sodium. Salt is the sodium content multiplied by 2.5. If you only have a sodium figure, enter it in milligrams and the checker works out the salt for you.

Are Traffic Light Labels Compulsory?

No. The nutrition table on the back of the pack is mandatory, but front-of-pack labels, including traffic lights, are voluntary. If you do provide one, it has to meet the rules in the guidance, for example it can show energy alone or energy plus fat, saturates, sugars and salt, and it has to meet legibility and font size requirements.

To see how the same recipe looks on a full label, use our Nutrition Label Generator. For the background to the system, read how the UK's traffic light labels work.

What This Tool Does Not Do

It does not produce the front-of-pack artwork to the official size, font and colour specification. It works out the colours from the values exactly as you enter them, and it does not round them the way a printed label does. It also does not handle optional wording such as “with no added sugars”. Treat it as a quick, accurate check of which colour each nutrient should get.

Sources

• Guide to creating a front of pack (FoP) nutrition label for pre-packed products sold through retail outlets (Department of Health, Food Standards Agency and devolved administrations)
• Check the label (GOV.UK, Food Standards Agency)