Taking the Pea snacks is the only food producer that RSPH is aware of that is currently using ‘activity equivalent’ calorie labelling on its products, a measure we called for in our policy paper released in January. Taking the Pea Director Mark Gallagher explains why he felt it was beneficial to provide this information to his customers.

We launched Taking the Pea in March 2015. My idea for the brand was born out of my own health and fitness goals, as I was looking for a protein, high fibre savoury snack to eat between meals. I came across wasabi peas – but wondered why there weren’t any other flavours available. 'Taking the Pea' came to me right there and then!

Providing consumers with options and being transparent about our products, the nutritional benefits and how many calories it contained was really important to me. It was information I was always looking for on food labels and so I decided we should go one step further and inform people what that means in terms of quantifiable energy; how much of a particular exercise or activity would our consumers have to do to expend the calories in each pack.

There is so much misinformation out there, and let's face it many food labels aren’t the easiest to understand – with misleading serving sizes being one of my personal pet peeves. With simple, clear labeling and activity equivalent information on packs, I felt that this was understandable and tangible to most people, and well if it encouraged our consumers to be more active – then great!

Our own consumer research also supports that of RSPH, which suggests two thirds of the public back activity equivalent labeling.

We feel really very proud to be one of the first brands to back activity equivalent labeling and would encourage other brands to follow suit.