Rakusen’s – Giving you the ‘green light’ for snacking

With news stories on a seemingly daily basis warning us about the dangers of obesity, diabetes and living an unhealthy lifestyle, it’s important to have as much nutritional information around the foods we eat as possible.

But, with so much to consider around ingredients, salt, sugars and both saturated and unsaturated fats, it’s easy to be a little overwhelmed by it all. However, the Food Standards Agency’s ‘traffic lights’ guidelines offer a great snapshot of how healthy (or unhealthy) the product inside the packaging actually is.

How the guidelines work

The traffic lights system indicates how high, medium or low a food product is in fat, sugars and salt using red, amber or green indicators respectively.

A red label means the product should be considered as high in that particular area and therefore only suitable as an occasional treat. Amber signifies it’s a little less unhealthy, but green is always the healthier choice.

As you’ll notice, the majority of our crackers and other products offer ‘green lights all the way’. This means they’re a fantastic choice for those who want a low fat, low salt, low sugar option… as well as being suitable for those who are kosher, vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free.

GDA pack example from our range of traditional ‘big blue’ Matzo crackers
GDA pack example from our range of traditional ‘big blue’ Matzo crackers

Achieving healthy ‘green light’ status

Low salt

To say a product is low in sodium/salt and attain ‘green light’ status, it should contain no more than 0.04g of sodium, or the equivalent value for salt, per 100g.

Low sugar

To claim the low sugar green light, the product should contain no more than 5g of sugars per 100g.

Low fat

For a low fat green light, the product must contain no more than 3g of fat per 100g.