Nestlé and Unilever lead call for EU nutrient profiles

07-Jun-2017 - Last updated on 12-Jun-2017 at 13:33 GMT

The EU has been asked to create nutrient profiles ‘as a matter of urgency’

Some of the world’s largest food firms – including Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Unilever – have called on the EU to create nutrient profiles for nutrition and health claims as a matter of urgency.

In an open letter to European Commission first vice-president Frans Timmermans, the companies said the lack of nutrient profiles to underpin the ability to make claims “risked misleading consumers about the healthfulness and nutritional attributes of products”.

‘Undermines the level playing field’

They also said that the absence of EU-wide nutrient profiles “undermines the level playing field that industry needs to compete fairly and to innovate for health”.

The letter added: “Without the underpinning of nutrient profiles, the EU’s legal framework for nutrition and health claims made on foods has been incomplete for the past 10 years.

“We believe that this situation is unsustainable and needs to be rectified as soon as possible.”

Please click here to sign-up for our free monthly Food Ingredients, Health & Nutrition (FIHN) newsletter.