Kellogg in the UK and Ireland to adopt “TRAFFIC LIGHT” labelling

Kellogg has announced its intention to move to colour coded front of pack nutrition labelling – commonly called traffic lights - on its cereals sold in the UK and Ireland.

The change will be applied from January 2019 as part of a project to deliver a complete design overhaul of our cereal packs to improve on-shelf shopper appeal.

The move will largely apply only to UK and Irish packs. In most cases multilingual boxes shared across a number of European countries, where colour coded labels aren’t well-known, will not carry the new label. This means almost 80 per cent of Kellogg cereals on sale in Britain will have coloured labelling on pack, including all hero SKUs such as Crunchy Nut, Special K and Corn Flakes.

Kellogg UK & Ireland, managing director, Oli Morton, said: “For more than a decade all our packs have carried black and white reference intakes on the front but we recognise times change and consumers now expect more from companies like us. Earlier this year we asked 2,000 people what they thought about our position on labelling and what they wanted us to do. The vast majority said we should change, we’ve listened, so we are changing.

“Alongside consumers, our customers have been asking us to shift too. By changing, we show we are serious about nutrition and serious about being a category leader. We are happy to listen to shoppers, retailers and the government and respond. After all, just like people, brands evolve their thinking too.”

The decision to change front of pack labels comes on the back of substantial work to overhaul our breakfast cereals across the UK and Europe as part of our Better Starts campaigns. This included reducing sugar by 40 per cent in Coco Pops while maintaining taste, a 20 per cent sugar reduction in Rice Krispies, and the launch of no added sugar and vegan friendly foods under the W.K. Kellogg brand.