The government’s health council today called for the introduction of a single logo to denote healthy food. The plethora of symbols around at the moment is not only confusing, but cannot be used on food that is good for you anyway.

Take the ‘Ik kiest bewust’ logo, which means ‘I choose consciously’ and appears in green with a big tick on all sorts of products – from sweets and mayonnaise-laden ‘salads’ to fresh fruit.
The logo was developed by a number of big food firms and can be applied to any product in a given food category that is less full of sugar, fat and other nasty things than others in the same category. And so it gives you the – false – impression that you are doing yourself good.
Then there is the Gezonde Keuze (healthy choice) four- leaf clover which supermarket group Albert Heijn uses on its own products with less fat, less salt, less sugar etc.
Not to mention advertising slogans such as ‘low fat’ and ‘low in sugar’ – which only mean something if you know how much salt and sugar is actually in the product to start with.
The trouble with all these logos and slogans is that they are drawn up and applied by the industry itself rather than a nice, neutral third party – one which does not think that reduced salt liquorice drops or fizzy drinks can claim to be healthy choices under any circumstances.