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The Conservatives want food packs to clearly display guideline daily amount (GDA) nutritional information, rather than use traffic lights, in a bid to tackle obesity.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley told the think tank Reform yesterday (27 August) that a Conservative government would "give backing for public awareness of GDAs and how they can be used to build a better diet".

He added the Tories would stop promoting the traffic light system, and blasted the government's "obsession" with traffic lights for its failure to develop a single system for consumers.

"Why push a system that only tells people a fraction of what they need to know?" he asked.

Lansley added that it was important to make consumers take responsibility for their weight and health, rather than blame it on nature.

"Tell people that biology and the environment causes obesity and they are offered the one thing we have to avoid; an excuse."

The Tories are inviting Unilever UK chairman Dave Lewis to chair a working group of business representatives looking at public health.