UK campaigners for nutrition labelling to focus on guideline daily amounts (GDAs) have welcomed the EU’s plans to standardise food labels across Europe.
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Earlier today (30 January), the European Commission tabled plans to make labels “clearer and more relevant” for shoppers in the EU.
It said European consumers had become confused by the “ever more varied and complex” labels carried on food across the 27 member states of the EU.
Among its proposals, the Commission said labels should carry information on the levels of energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt in each product – and data showing how those levels correspond to the recommended daily allowance of each ingredient.
The proposals come just a week after the UK government called for the country’s food industry to develop a single labelling system in a bid to help consumers follow a balanced diet.
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By GlobalDataThe issue has provoked fierce debate in the UK. Some producers and retailers favour colour-coded “traffic lights” on labels to indicate to consumers whether a product is high in the likes of fat, sugar and salt.
Other manufacturers and retailers use the GDA system, which seeks to tell shoppers how much of those ingredients they should eat each day. GDA labelling also shows the level of those ingredients in a product as a percentage of the recommended daily allowance.
Dr Jane Holdsworth, director of the GDA Campaign, a UK lobby group, said: “GDAs are a powerful way of enabling and encouraging consumers to better understand what constitutes a healthy diet. The labels allow shoppers to see what percentage of the GDA for key nutrients each product contributes to their diet, so that they can make informed choices.
“We are delighted that the European Commission is recommending a GDA-based approach to unified food labelling across Europe.”
European consumer body BEUC welcomed the Commission’s “regulatory” approach to labelling but said it was disappointed that the plans did not include a “colour-coding scheme” to help consumers judge “at a glance” the nutritional value of a product.
“A multiple colour-coding scheme is easy for consumers to understand and works best for consumers as it gives a quick interpretation of what the levels of key nutrients mean – high, medium or low,” BEUC said.
The UK’s Food Standards Agency, which has advocated the use of such a colour-coding scheme in the form of traffic lights, could not be reached for comment as just-food went to press.
BEUC added that the Commission should have insisted on the inclusion of information the “big eight” nutrients on labels, data that would also include protein, fibre and trans fats.
BEUC director general Monique Goyens said: “We welcome the Commission’s intention to impose binding rules on nutrition labelling for the food industry. However, to be really meaningful, the information which is provided must be comprehensive and easily understandable and some improvements are clearly needed on these points.”
See the just-food blog on why a hybrid labelling system could be a likely compromise.
