Britain’s leading dieticians have expressed their dismay at last week’s decision by members of the European parliament to reject calls for a “traffic light” system of food labelling to warn consumers of the dangers of excessive amounts of salt, sugar and fat.

In what is regarded my many as yet another triumph for the lobbying powers of the huge supermarket chains, they voted instead for a more complex, and difficult to understand, system under which the amounts of the three dangerous ingredients are marked by their proportions of a healthy daily intake.

This GDA system can vary wildly depending on the sex and weight of the consumer, is difficulty to understand, and is time-consuming to read for a busy shopper whereas the traffic light system can be seen as a glance by giving red, green or amber labels for each substance for people seeking a healthy diet.

This system has been rejected by several of Britain’s supermarkets, led by Tesco, despite the fact that salt, fat and sugar in so-called “junk foods” are known to be major causes of diabetes and heart disease.

Attacking the decision, the British Dietetic Association says it wants consumers to have access to clear, consistent, at glance information to help them to make informed choices about the food they eat.

“We are extremely disappointed that the ‘traffic light colours’ system was not voted in favour of as the GDA labelling alone does not allow a quick understanding of the relative healthiness of a product and is less acceptable to those consumers wanting to make a quick choice,” said the association’s statement.