On 11 June the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) held a public hearing on the issue of food labelling in relation to obesity.
On 11 June the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) held a public hearing on the issue of food labelling in relation to obesity- organized by MEPs Magor Imre Csibi and Jules Maaten.
The speakers were Basil Mathioudakis from the European Commission (EC), Kees de Winter from Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA), and Rosemary Hignett from the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA).
Earlier this year the EC proposed a new regulation on the provision of food information to consumers in order to simplify regulation, make it more efficient and provide more information. The proposal suggests, among other things, mandatory nutrition labelling, minimum standards to improve legibility and origin declaration.
There was an overall agreement on the importance of informing the consumer, but there was some disagreement on which is the best way to achieve this.
Basil Mathioudakis, the first speaker, defended the proposal which has been criticised by industry for being “too rigid” by stating:
“I totally refute such allegations. The opposite is the case and, indeed, I hope the proposals will get agreement in the first reading in the parliament”. He noted that the proposed regulation would be an important tool to inform consumers about the composition of everyday foods.
The food industry, mainly represented by Mrs. Nafziger, emphasized that food labelling can not stand alone in the fight against the rising levels of obesity and that labelling should be informative not judgemental. Therefore CIAA proposed the introduction of voluntary measures to improve nutritional information using %GDA as the indicator.
Other members of the food industry expressed concern over parts of the proposal, fearing that consumers might be misled instead of guided by e.g. the traffic light scheme. There were concerns expressed over the problems with packaging if a minimum font size of 3 mm were mandatory and the cost of adapting to this new regulation.
Kees de Winter from BEUC and Rosemary Hignett, FSA, argued for making the multicoloured Traffic Light Scheme for four key nutrients (salt, sugar, saturated fat and fat) on Front of Pack (FoP) mandatory. Rosemary Hignett argued for the same in her presentation of the experiences gathered in the UK. The Traffic Light Scheme was shown to be the most effective of the 5 schemes trialled, some by the FSA. What they also discovered was that:
– consumers wanted FoP labelling
– they liked separate information on 4 key nutrients
– they found traffic light colour coding easy to understand and use
– they wanted additional numerical information on amount of nutrient in a serving
– they found GDA’s and percentages confusing
The importance of making nutrition and ingredient labelling mandatory on wine, beer and spirits and having a consistent mandatory labelling system with colour codes was emphasised by the NGOs representing different areas of health at the hearing.
There was agreement on the complexity of obesity and on the need for a comprehensive programme, including food labelling and education, to empower consumers to make the healthy choice.
Mr. Csibi closed the debate ensuring all those concerned that the European Parliament will be involved in the preparation of the legislation and that “the end product is both of added benefit to European consumers without posing additional unnecessary burdens for food product manufacturers.”
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For further information:
– Proposal for legislation by the European Commission
– FSA Traffic Light Labelling for consumers
– FSA Traffic Light Labelling in depth
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