Food Information for Consumers
The new EU Regulation that covers the information food and drink companies must put on labels has been adopted September 2011.
The new Regulation consolidates and updates two areas of labelling legislation –
general food and nutrition labelling - into a single text. Having a single piece
of legislation covering food labelling will make it easier for governments,
companies and enforcement officers to understand and apply the labelling rules in a
way that is consistent across the European Union.
The EC proposal also contains some new measures. The most significant of these
is a requirement for food and drink products to carry information on-pack about
how much of certain key nutrients, including fat, salt and sugar, are in the
product. At the moment, putting this information on a label is voluntary (although
in practice most of the food and drink products manufactured in the UK already do
have nutrition labelling).
Food manufacturers will have the possibility to repeat, voluntarily, some of the
nutritional information on the front-of-pack.
The new EC proposal also introduces daily reference intakes (GDAs), a mandatory
font size, a definition of 'engineered nanomaterials' and extends country of
origin requirements to foods other than fresh meat.
Following the adoption by the Member States in September 2011, the new
Regulation is now expected to be published in the Official Journal of the EU towards the
end of November/ beginning of December and will enter into force 20 days later.
The vast majority of the new rules will become applicable three years after
their publication.
Last reviewed: 26 Oct 2011