Markos Kyprianou, the European Commissioner for health and consumer protection, has entered the front of pack nutrition labelling debate by calling for food and drink manufacturers not to “undermine” the European Commission’s efforts to improve diet and health across the EU.
Speaking at last week’s EU confederation of food and drink industries, CIAA, congress in Brussels, Kyprianou said front of pack signposting schemes “should not contradict or undermine efforts to improve EU rules”
Kyprianou joined the heated argument that is now raging in the UK between those manufacturers and retailers that support the use of guideline daily amount (GDA) front of pack labelling, such as Unilever and Tesco, and those on the other side, such as McCain, New Covent Garden Food, Sainsbury, Asda, Waitrose and The Co-operative Group that are behind the ‘traffic light’ system, favoured by the UK’s Food Standards Agency.
“My worry about traffic lights is that they will drive the wrong consumer behaviours,” Unilever group chief executive Patrick Cescau told the CIAA congress. “I’m all for simplicity and I badly want a scheme that consumers can understand, but I have serious concerns about one which has been simplified to such an extent that it results in poorer, not better, choices. We need a scheme that allows us to demonstrate the differences.”
Kyprianou said recent consultations would be used to develop proposals for revising general food and nutrition labelling legislation. “This new legislation will be not only an update but also a ‘user friendly recast’ of the current texts,” he said. “We aim to adopt the proposals in 2007.”
But Cescau called on legislators to wait for the results of different front of pack labelling schemes to be properly evaluated before making any legislative changes. In a pointed remark, he said: “Our judgement should be based not on which scheme the consumer prefers, but on which scheme drives the right behaviours.”
However, Kyprianou welcomed the food industry’s participation in his “Platform” initiative aimed at getting stakeholders to work together to tackle obesity and other health issues. He called for a “comprehensive approach” to deal with the problems and the need to monitor participants’ compliance with the commitments they make.
“We see the food industry as a crucial part of the solution to the current obesity issue,” he said. “One area where major players in the food industry have been able to make important and visible contribution is the Platform for Diet, Physical Activity and Health.”