0
The proposal aims to ensure better labelling information to help consumers make healthier and more sustainable food choices and tackle food waste, by proposing to:
- introduce standardised mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling
- extend mandatory origin or provenance information for certain products.
- revise the rules on date marking (‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates).
Considering current labelling rules, consumers do not always understand the nutritional information provided on food packaging and do not always find clear and simple nutritional information, which makes healthy food choices difficult. Additionally, nutrition and health claims can sometimes mask the overall nutritional status of food products, which could mislead consumers attempting to make healthy choices.
Although origin labelling is already compulsory for certain food products, there is a growing demand from consumers to know the origin of their foods and to extend this mandatory origin indication to other categories of food.
Consumers often misunderstand and misuse date marking. According to a 2015 Eurobarometer, less than half of consumers understand the meaning of date marking: “use by” and “best before”.
The public consultation launched by the European Commission aims to receive input from a wide range of citizens and stakeholders including national competent authorities, non-governmental organisations, academia, scientific experts, food business operators, economic actors and their professional associations.
The deadline for the consultation is February 4, 2022, and can be accessed with this link.
December 16, 2021/ European Commission/ European Union.
https://ec.europa.eu
