MEPs yesterday (31 January) backed a resolution opposing new labels recommended by the European Commission. The resolution will be considered by the full Parliament after gaining support from a cross-section of political groups in the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee.
The Commission has proposed amending a five-year-old regulation to add new nutritional categories that would allow food companies to claim reformulated foods have a minimum of 15% less fat, sugar or salt than earlier products, and a no-added salt label. An existing “reduced” label must have at least 30% less of an ingredient.
German centre-right MEP Renate Sommer, the parliamentary rapporteur on food labelling, accused the EU executive of trying to water down existing regulations, saying the lower threshold “would mislead consumers and producers would only have used it to boost sales".
"If we continue to rubber-stamp almost any producer claim, there will be ever-more claims and consumers will no longer be able to distinguish between foodstuffs", Sommer (European Peoples’ Party) said in a statement after the vote.
Supporters of the resolution said the new labelling rules would discourage food producers from developing recipes that have greater health benefits and fewer calories.
Salt, sugars and fats are typically key ingredients in packaged or long-life food products.
"Consumers are naturally influenced by health and nutrition claims when comparing similar products on the supermarket shelf, and we can't allow those claims to be misleading," said British MEP Glenis Willmott (Socialists and Democrats).
Health and consumer groups have in the past complained that EU policymakers and the European Food Safety Authority have been too lax in overseeing health claims on food labels.
They have also claimed the proposed Commission rules on labelling could mislead consumers to believe that foods were lower in fat, salts or sugar than they really are and that such labels don’t necessarily mean foods are appreciably healthier.
But in announcing plans to provide better labelling information on 20 June 2011, the Commission said it sought to provide more consistency across the EU and cut red tape to encourage innovation in food choices.
