MEPs told to make amends on food labelling

By Emily Smith

Date: 16/03/06

Consumer groups are calling on MEPs to end "misleading" health claims on hundreds of popular food products.

A proposed regulation on nutrition and health claims comes up for second reading at Parliament's environment committee next Tuesday (21 March).

Consumer group BEUC, however, claims that MEPs last year stripped the proposal of its most essential parts.

The first reading result was "awful" from a consumer's point of view, said Muriel Danis of BEUC. "The regulation [as it was left by MEPs] almost wouldn't mean anything."

In its original form, the regulation would have banned all health claims on foods that were high in sugar, salt or fat.

For example, a fat-free yoghurt could not say it was fat-free if it also contained large amounts of sugar.

But Parliament voted to take out the section that would have made sure foods with health claims on their label fitted a "healthy" nutrient profile.

The committee must now decide whether to stick with this, go back to the original, or opt for one of the halfway house amendments proposed. These include the idea of keeping the health claims but with a qualification somewhere else on the packet - the system used in the US.

For BEUC only the original proposal is good enough. But the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the European Union (CIAA) claimed that the original was "over-burdensome". It said all claims that were "science-based and well understood by the consumer" should be allowed in Europe.

It warned that food manufacturers will need three years to adapt to whatever measures are agreed.

Article reports that consumer groups were calling on MEPs to end 'misleading' health claims on hundreds of popular food products as the proposed regulation on nutrition and health claims came up for second reading at the European Parliament's Environment Committee on 21 March 2006.

European Commission: PreLex: COM(2003) 424, Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on nutrition and health claims made on foods, 16.7.03 http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL=en&DosId=184390

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