Helping people make a healthy choice?

Changing the rules

The EU is updating its rules on food labelling, but agreement is elusive. The European Commission promised that its proposal would cut red tape, by turning eight existing laws into one regulation, and would respect national differences, by allowing member states wide scope to adopt national rules.
But industry groups have said that the draft regulation is unworkable and would weigh heavily on small businesses. Health groups were more favourable, but would have preferred a clear proposal for ‘traffic-light' labels, where the healthiest foods win a green label, and foods high in sugar, salt and fat are marked with red.

Under the Commission proposal, food manufacturers would be required to display details about energy, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar and salt in letters at least three millimetres high on the front of packs.

But Renate Sommer, the German centre-right MEP leading on this dossier for the European Parliament, wants to scrap this approach. Consumers would be overwhelmed with information, she says, while the minimum font-size requirement would create bulkier packaging, more waste, and potentially larger portions.

Under her re-drafted version, only calories would be on the front of the pack. She also proposes different rules to ensure that the text is legible rather than merely specifying font size. Sommer would also have preferred that the Commission waited for the findings of an EU-funded research project (see main article).

The environment committee will vote on Sommer's report next month (16 March), with the full Parliament expected to vote in June.