European Parliament To Decide Whether Nutrient Profiles Should Be Used For Food Marketing Purposes
16 Jun 2015 --- The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee is due to vote today on whether the European Commission should consider repealing the 2006 EU Nutrition & Health Claims Regulation and whether nutrient profiles should ever see the light of day.
The 2006 EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation included a reference to “nutrient profiles”, which would determine which products can and cannot use the claims based on their overall nutritional value. Specifically, nutrient profiles would ensure that only products which meet certain criteria, for instance maximum levels of sugar, salt or fat, could refer to health benefits on their package.
BEUC is concerned that although the Commission had to define those nutrient profiles by 2009, they were never implemented. It has been lobbying the EU Commission to come up with a set of strict nutrient profiles since then.
The EU institutions are now re-evaluating the Regulation and today’s vote will determine its future.
Monique Goyens, BEUC’s Director General commented: “The European Commission should ensure that consumers are not misled by unhealthy foods making spurious health claims and should implement the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation in its entirety by developing nutrient profiles."
