CIAA Welcomes the Council Common Position on Food Information

Food and drink manufacturers welcome the fact that the Council and the Parliament have both endorsed Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs), a labelling scheme which provides nutrition information on a per portion basis (in addition to that provided per 100g/ml) in a clear and consistent manner.

2/22/2011 --- The CIAA (Confederation of food and drink industries of the EU) welcomes the Council’s Common Position on food information to consumers. It brings the institutions one step closer to an agreement and CIAA now looks to the Parliament at second reading to reach a balanced agreement which provides consumers with clear labelling, enabling them to make more informed food and drink choices based on their individual needs.

Firstly, the CIAA and its members remain opposed to the extension of mandatory origin labelling. Industry supports maintaining the existing framework on origin labelling (which requires mandatory origin labelling where a failure to do so might mislead the consumer). An extension would be unworkable given that, for instance, in many cases, the origin or provenance may often change according to price, stock availability or place of production, etc. Should the existing legislation on mandatory origin labelling be extended, this should, at a minimum, be preceded by an impact assessment including a stakeholder consultation in order to assess the need, feasibility and practicality of such an extension.

Food and drink manufacturers welcome the fact that the Council and the Parliament have both endorsed Guideline Daily Amounts (GDAs), a labelling scheme which provides nutrition information on a per portion basis (in addition to that provided per 100g/ml) in a clear and consistent manner.

Moving forward, the CIAA looks to the EU institutions to find a compromise which would include the same field of vision for mandatory nutrients while giving due regard to the provision of additional information on energy (expressed in GDAs per portion) front-of-pack (FOP). As a recent FSAI study reveals, consumers find nutrition information FOP expressed per portion most meaningful in aiding them to make informed food choices.

While the CIAA welcomes the Council deletion of the Chapter on national schemes, food and drink manufacturers remain concerned that Member States have reintroduced a provision which would de facto allow for the proliferation of national additional forms of expression/presentation. This would create barriers to trade, fragmenting the Single Market.

Finally, the CIAA regrets that the Council has taken a simplified approach to legibility, focusing on minimum font size, whereas other criteria (such as font type, contrast between the font and background, line and character pitch) are equally crucial to ensuring consumers are able to understand the information. Moving forward, we trust that the institutions will find a compromise that takes other criteria into account in a holistic manner. Should the institutions call for a minimum font size, we would urge that this should be no more than 1 mm; otherwise it could negatively impact on spacing (among other things), thus, in turn, compromising legibility.

In sum, the CIAA believes that the Council’s position is a good starting point for discussion at second reading. In addition to the issues mentioned above, we trust that due consideration will be given the technical issues which remain on the table, to ensure the final legislation is complete, coherent and works for consumers and industry alike.