New EU labelling information for consumers: good or bad news?
18 December 2014
Several new labelling rules are included in the EU Regulation on Food Information to consumers and are made mandatory as of 13 December 2014.
SAFE welcomes the new labelling information for consumers, but unfortunately those new rules will not provide all the information which EU citizens need to receive before buying food products.
So, is it good or bad news for EU consumers?
Good news
New important mandatory information on display:
- Highlighting in bold or in colors any of 14 allergens products;
- Restaurants, canteens and café must provide allergen info too;
- List of nanomaterials;
- Which type of oil is used (olive or palm etc..);
- Origin labelling of unprocessed meat from pigs, sheep, goats and poultry (only the country in which the animal is reared and slaughtered);
- Indication of defrosted products.
Bad news
- Mandatory font size requirement is only 1.2 mm. Consumers cannot read them!
- It’s not mandatory to state the origin of ingredients;
- It’s not mandatory to state the birthplace for pigs, sheep, goats and poultry;
- It’s not mandatory to label GMO when meat, eggs or milk derives from animals fed with GMOs.
Food operators will have two years to implement nutritional labelling for processed food.
