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European Parliament To Decide...

European Parliament To Decide Whether Nutrient Profiles Should Be Used For Food Marketing Purposes

16 Jun 2015
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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.

In Europe today, the food and drink industry can legally use health and nutrition claims on their products, including biscuits, sugary sugary  and confectionery, provided that vitamins or minerals are added to the product. Most health claims have to be approved by the European Food Safety Authority, which puts many foods through a vigorous analysis process to decide whether a health claim is fair.
 
Consumer rights campaigner BEUC has raised concerns that some foods, regardless of their nutrient profile, are marketed as healthy due to their vitamin or mineral content, regardless of the amount of salt, fat or sugar in the product. These ingredients are deemed not healthy. In light of this risk, the EU introduced 'nutrient profiles' to avoid certain foods being marketed as healthy based on their vitamin and mineral content alone. The Nutrient Profile takes into account all of a food's components.

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."

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