Breakthrough in EU Food Labeling Negotiations

The draft legislation would harmonize existing rules on information that is compulsory on all labels, such as list of ingredients, "best before" or "use by" dates, specific conditions of use, and add a requirement to list key nutritional information.

6/23/2011 --- The EU Parliament's negotiating team has received the Council's green light for the provisional agreement reached last week on new EU legislation on food labelling. The deal, which aims to ensure that food labels become clearer in future, now needs to be approved by Parliament in a plenary vote in July.

"The deal is a milestone in the EU`s food legislation that will benefit both the consumer and food business operators", commented Parliament's rapporteur Renate Sommer (EPP, DE), adding that "In future, European citizens will find much more information on the packages than before".

The draft legislation aims to modernise, simplify and clarify food labelling within the EU. It would harmonize existing rules on information that is compulsory on all labels, such as list of ingredients, "best before" or "use by" dates, specific conditions of use, and add a requirement to list key nutritional information. For producers and food business operators, it will reduce red tape and strengthen the single market.

The negotiating teams agreed that key nutritional information, such as energy content and amounts of fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and salt, must be indicated in a legible tabular form on the packaging. All this information would normally have to be expressed per 100g or per 100ml. It could also be expressed per portion and could also be accompanied by guideline daily amounts, after the Commission has defined portion sizes.

Concerning the labelling of transfats, MEPs agreed that before introducing any obligation to label food containing transfats, the Commission will have to submit within three years a report on the presence of transfats in food in the EU, which evaluates possible ways to tackle the problem. If neccessary, this report should be accompanied by a legislative proposal.

At the request of MEPs on the negotiating team, the agreement says that allergenic substances must be highlighted in the ingredient list, so that consumers can find the information on allergens at first glance.

The origin of certain foods, such as beef, honey, olive oil and fresh fruit and vegetables, must already be stated on the label. At Parliament's request, the Council of Ministers agreed at the first reading to extend this requirement to fresh meat from swine, sheep, goat and poultry.

Many MEPs also wanted to extend country of origin labelling to more products (such as milk and dairy products and other single-ingredient products or meat when used as an ingredient), but this proved unacceptable to Council. Instead, it was agreed that before considering whether to extend country of origin labelling to other categories of food, the Commission will have to conduct impact assessments to assess the feasibility and potential costs of such labelling requirements.

At the request of MEPs, rules to ensure that consumers are not misled by the presentation of food packaging with regard to its appearance, description or pictorial presentation will be strengthened. They also insisted that foods should not be labelled in a way that could create the impression that they are a different food. Where an ingredient that would normally be expected has been replaced, this should be clearly stated on the label and next to the brand name, the agreement says.

The probably most important innovative element of the new food labelling rules is the mandatory nutrition information on prepacked foods. Under the new rules, the energy value and the amounts of fat, saturates, carbohydrates, protein, sugars and salt (which together form the "mandatory nutrition declaration") must be indicated in the same field of vision per 100g or per 100ml and may, additionally, also be expressed per portion. The intention is to enable consumers to make healthier dietary choices. Another important element of the draft regulation is the introduction of a minimum font size of 1.2 mm (for the x-height) for all mandatory information which is aimed to improve legibility of food labels. A third important element is the extension of compulsory country of origin labelling to fresh meat of swine, sheep and goats, and poultry (in addition to beef, for which a separate piece of legislation was introduced during the BSE crisis, and to fruits and vegetables, honey, olive oils, and cases where the failure to do so misleads the consumer). Further improvements of the EU food labelling rules concern allergens (which in the future must be highlighted in the list of ingredients), vegetable oils (whose specific vegetable origin must be indicated) and imitation foods (which consumers will be able to recognise more easily).