Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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FoodDrinkEurope Statement, 19 April 2018
FoodDrinkEurope welcomes the announcement of the European Commission that it will facilitate an EU discussion on front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling involving Member States and stakeholders, including the industry, starting with a first joint meeting on 23 April 2018.
The European food and drink industry has since long been calling for a co-ordinated approach to FOP nutrition labelling at European level in the wake of a number of national initiatives - notably in the UK and France - which fragment the EU Single Market and are prone to create confusion for European consumers.
FoodDrinkEurope is hopeful that the meeting on 23 April will be the start of a fair and transparent process that will allow for a thorough assessment and exchange of different approaches to FOP, based on objective and agreed criteria. This would allow for a better common understanding of the different nutrition labels – both interpretative as well as non-interpretative – that exist on the European market.
Given the scattered knowledge and evidence on this issue, we are of the opinion that one single meeting and a Commission report by the end of the year is unlikely to suffice and therefore would welcome a more structured dialogue.
Back in 2006, well before the adoption of the EU Regulation on Food Information to Consumers, the European food and drink industry pioneered FOP nutrition labelling through the introduction of the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA, now Reference Intakes) scheme, which is the only pan-European FOP nutrition labelling scheme on the market to date. FoodDrinkEurope looks forward to bringing these and other industry experiences related to nutrition labelling to the table.
