A joint meeting of European member states and the food industry has taken place this week which could see a more unified approach to nutritional information on the front of food products throughout Europe.
Front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional labelling is a hot topic at the moment as governments look to tackle the obesity problem and consumer confusion when purchasing food and drink. Set up by the European Commission, this meeting is the first in a line of meetings which will be held in the coming months to formulate a report into what it would recommend as regards to labelling rules in the single market.
FoodDrinkEurope, who openly welcomed the meeting said that the sector has long been calling for a synchronised and unified approach to FOP nutrition labelling thought the European Union. Adding that national initiatives, like the traffic light system in the UK and Nutri-Score in France cause fragmentation in the EU Single Market and creates confusion for consumers.
The organisation said in a statement,” FoodDrinkEurope is hopeful that the meeting will be the start of a fair and transparent process that will allow for a thorough assessment and exchange of different approaches to FOP, based on objective and agreed criteria.
“This would allow for a better common understanding of the different nutrition labels – both interpretative as well as non-interpretative – that exist on the European market. FoodDrinkEurope looks forward to bringing these and other industry experiences related to nutrition labelling to the table.”
Two weeks ago, a survey of Dutch consumers asked which FOP nutritional labelling system they thought was best, with the UK’s traffic light system coming first beating out France’s Nutri-Score and the Scandinavian keyhole logo.