Food labelling
EU Parliament committee approves better information to consumers
The EU Parliament Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety today adopted a report regarding information labelling of food products. The Greens/EFA Group voted in favour of the report for its several positive aspects, but regretted the rejection of a 'traffic light' system to inform consumers with a red, amber or green rating for levels of salt, sugar, fat and calorie content in processed foods.
Swedish Green MEP Carl Schlyter commented:
"I welcome that the EU Parliament environment committee has agreed on several improvements on food labelling for consumers. Consumers will at last know the country of origin of all meat and therefore be empowered to choose not to support the long-distance transport of animals. Labelling will be mandatory for foods containing nano-products, which shows that we take the advance of nanotechnology in the food sector seriously. MEPs have indicated they want to go beyond labelling of chemically altered 'trans fats' and wish to secure an outright ban of their inclusion in food.
I regret however that a majority of committee members caved in to lobbying by the food industry to drop support for a 'traffic light' system, which would guarantee consumer-friendly information on the levels of fat, salt, sugar and calorie content. I also regret that the committee voted in favour of deleting 'nutrient profiles' in the Health Claims regulation, which are designed to ensure that foods cannot be marketed as more healthy than they really are.
The report is overall a positive step, but one that still leaves room for significant further improvement when the EU Parliament plenary votes on it in May."
