Leading supermarket chains said half of shoppers already used the labels easily and accurately. The comments are the latest skirmish in a battle between the industry and the Government's Food Standards Agency, which wants to use "traffic light" style warnings to alert shoppers to unhealthy foods.

The traffic lights scheme uses colour-coded labels revealing levels of fat, sugar and salt. Each nutrient is labelled red, amber or green depending on whether levels are high, medium or low.

The voluntary front-of-pack scheme has won the backing of Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Asda, Marks & Spencer, the Co-Op and McCain.

However, much of the food industry, including Tesco, Unilever, Kellogg's, Coca-Cola and Morrisons is opposed to the scheme.

Source: The Telegraph