Traffic light labelling scheme meets the European challenge

Proposals from a European Parliament (EP) committee to stop national labelling schemes existing alongside an agreed EU-wide scheme have challenged the future of the Food Standards Agency's (FSA's) preferred traffic light labelling scheme.

Renate Sommer is rapporteur for the EP's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. She has claimed the EU food labelling system proposed by the European Commission for a regulation is unsuited either to reducing red tape and simplifying legislation or to giving better food information.

She called the proposal to allow Member States to adopt their own rules "incomprehensible", adding: "National labelling systems would be more likely to confuse consumers, undermine legal certainty and lead to additional distortions of competition on the internal market."

However, regulatory affairs expert Neville Craddock said the FSA might go ahead, arguing its proposal was a purely voluntary scheme acting as "best practice" guidance rather than a mandatory rule. "It reduces the FSA's initiatives to a voluntary national measure. Then any pressure the FSA would want to bring would be questionable. It could put the cat amongst the pigeons." But, he added: "Rules are one thing, voluntary schemes are another."

Given the support across Europe for national schemes, Craddock suggested Sommer's amendment might even not survive. However, he said it was not unusual for draft reports - such as Sommer's - to be the starting point for negotiations.

Sommer said the European proposal would also "impose a severe burden on the food sector" in the EU, calling the notion of perhaps 27 additional and different EU labelling schemes "an absurdity"

Craddock doubted so many different schemes would emerge. He suggested that because of differences among Member States, the timescale for passing the new regulation was likely to slip - possibly into the next EP session. Much would depend on what happened during the Czech presidency of the EU during the first half of 2009 and the Swedish presidency for the second half, he said. "The Czechs are not keen on nutrition labelling," he added.

The debate will be brought up to date at Food Manufacture's conference Food labelling in the dock on February 12 2009 in Warwick. The FSA's head of nutrition Rosemary Hignett, Food and Drink Federation director general Melanie Leech and Nick Gray from Trading Standards will debate the issues around front of pack labelling. For details contact Helen Law 01293 846587 or e-mail helen.law@william-reed.co.uk