About: EU food and consumers policy
EU kebab-ban? All smoke and no roast
An objection aimed at banning phosphate from kebab meat, to be voted in the European Parliament on Tuesday (12 December), has started a Europe-wide controversy, fuelled by a German conservative MEP and fake news. EURACTIV France reports.
‘No second class consumers’: Juncker slams double food quality in the EU
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker criticised double standards of food quality in his address to Parliament on Wednesday morning (13 September), saying that there should be no “second class consumers” in the single market.
Italy’s fresh challenge to the EU on food labelling
Italy is seeking to reintroduce a requirement to specify the production site on the labels of transformed food products, in fresh defiance of Brussels' food rules after unilaterally mandating country of origin on pasta and rice labels last August.
Save our fries! Belgians say EU spares national dish
Belgium's national dish, the deep fried potato sticks that much of the English-speaking world gallingly calls "French fries", has been saved.
Hard cheese for soya and tofu as EU court bans dairy names for plant-based products
Plant-based products like soya and tofu can no longer be sold with dairy-type names like milk or butter, the European Union's top court ruled Wednesday (14 June).
Regulating consumers, ensuring public health?
Soft drinks, food, tobacco, alcohol and e-cigarettes are among the most regulated consumer products in Europe.
Slovak study fuels concerns about lower quality food in Eastern Europe
A new study carried out by the Slovak government has found significant quality differences in the same products sold in Slovakia and Austria.
Visegrád readies attack against ‘double standards’ for food
The leaders of the Visegrád Group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) are meeting today (2 March) in Warsaw to discuss, among other things, food quality in Central and Eastern Europe.
Potocnik: Farmers and consumers ‘equally responsible’ for agricultural transformation
Every food producer should help make agriculture sustainable, Janez Potočnik told EURACTIV.com.
Nestlé executive: ‘We are all facing risks of having supply challenges’
Climate change is confronting the European food sector with an unprecedented risk related to supplies of agricultural raw materials, warns Pascal Gréverath.
Food sector looks beyond factory gates for deep CO2 cuts
The European food and drink industry can boast a healthy track record in reducing its carbon footprint ahead of the COP21 conference, which opens in Paris later this month. VideoPromoted content
Safe Food for European Consumers
Safe food is a prerequisite for food security and paramount to the industry. The production, marketing and consumption of safe food are non-negotiable requirements that all partners along the food chain must adhere to, regardless of their place from farm to fork.
European children exposed to less food advertising on TV
According to new research, European children are exposed to less food marketing on TV today than ten years ago.
French fair-trade sector seeks revival after crisis dip
France’s appetite for fair-trade products lags behind European counterparts, with the sector turning increasingly to producers in the developing world for a recovery solution, EURACTIV France and Germany report.
EU tables revised food safety rules on back of horsemeat scandal
In the wake of the horsemeat scandal which rocked Europe’s food industry, the European Commission has proposed measures to tighten controls on the health of animals and plants entering the European food chain. VideoPromoted content
5% of EU beef products contain horsemeat, says EU
Horse DNA has been found in up to 5% of EU products labelled as beef, according to results published on Tuesday by the European Commission. Additional tests on horse carcasses revealed a 0.5% contamination of phenylbutazone or 'bute', a potentially harmful drug banned from human consumption. The Commission dismissed concerns that bute traces or horse meat consumption pose a risk to human health and called the scandal a 'food fraud'.
Tests show up to 5% of EU beef products contain horsemeat
Up to 5% of European Union products labelled as beef contain horsemeat, according to results published by the European Commission yesterday (16 April).
EU beef, soy demand adds to Amazon destruction, says study
EU demand for Brazilian beef and soy is contributing to deforestation of the Amazon and rising CO2 emissions, says a report by the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research published on Thursday (4 April).
EU begins month of intensive DNA tests for horsemeat
The EU has begun one month of extensive DNA testing on food products, after companies found horsemeat in numerous beef dishes.
Almost half of the world’s food thrown away, report finds
As much as half of all the food produced in the world – equivalent to 2bn tonnes – ends up as waste every year, engineers warned in a report published on Thursday.
MEPs vote to bar changes in nutritional labels
MEPs voted by a wide margin today (2 February) to ditch a European Commission plan for giving food producers new choices to promote products as having less fat, sugar or salt.
MEPs show little appetite for new ‘low-fat’ labels
A proposal to give food manufacturers more flexibility to promote their products as low in fat, sugar or salt has been a dealt blow when a parliamentary committee voted to block changes to nutritional labels. The full European Parliament is expected to consider the issue tomorrow (2 February).
Consumer empowerment: Helping shoppers to buy green [Archived]
As pressure mounts to lead sustainable lifestyles, policymakers and companies alike are mulling new ways of encouraging shoppers to buy green. But consumer groups warned against confronting shoppers with too much information and warned that companies' green claims are often not independently verified.