Mandatory food levels enforced

Origin labels, which are already mandatory for beef, could be extended to milk, unprocessed foods and other goods in future, details of the deal seen by Reuters showed.

The rules are unlikely to be finalised before mid-2011 after governments rejected a number of proposals by co-legislators in the European Parliament, forcing a second reading of the plans. One area on which governments and lawmakers in Parliament disagree is nutritional labels on products – a key element in the draft rules designed to fight rising levels of obesity.

In June the Parliament said companies must label the energy, sugar, salt, protein and fat content of foodstuffs on the front of packages as well as the levels of unsaturated fats and fibre. In the deal, governments said including unsaturated fats and fibre in the labels should be voluntary and did not specify that nutritional labels – which would be compulsory within five years – must appear on the front of packs.

Similarly, governments want “guideline daily amount” or GDA labels for salt, fat, sugar and energy content to be voluntary, rather than mandatory as stipulated by the Parliament. Governments did back an exemption from nutritional labelling for alcoholic beverages including wine, beer and spirits, but unlike the Parliament they do want to see nutritional labels on alcopops.

The German centre-right lawmaker leading the Parliament’s debate on the rules, Renate Sommer, said that was a mistake. “I’m a little bit afraid that if you put the same labelling on alcopops as you do on fruit juices, this could be misleading for the consumer, because it’s not so clear anymore which is which,” she said.