Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I compliment Safefood on the tremendous work it is doing and on the marketing campaigns in which it has been involved and which are ingenious. Such work needs to be continue to be done and supported. My question, which is related to that, is on the marketing, advertising and packaging of food. Many food products are advertised as healthy foods but they have a very high sugar content or a food product may be advertised as being 95% fat free, which means it has 5% fat content. If one is lucky enough to find a food product that is low in sugar and fat content, one will find that it probably contains about one third of the total recommended daily salt content. My question is how the consumer can choose foods, processed foods mainly, in a sensible and straightforward manner because one would nearly want a degree in nutrition to work out exactly what is in some of these foods. One finds what appears to be a health food product but it transpires it is not healthy and some of the foods that are not marketed as healthy are far healthier than the ones being marketed and promoted as such. How can that challenge be addressed?