Byrne welcomes food allergen proposals

The European Parliament this week showed strong support for the first reading of the Commission's proposal for an amendment to the food labelling Directive (2000/13/EC OJ L 109, 6.5.200 (1)), and proposed additional amendments to strengthen the law.

The draft law is intended to ensure that all consumers are informed of the complete contents of foodstuffs and, in particular, to enable consumers with allergies to identify any allergenic ingredients that may be present. The proposal means that all ingredients added will have to be included on the label and will abolish the '25 per cent rule' which currently means that it is not obligatory to label the components of compound ingredients that make up less than 25 per cent of the final food product.

David Byrne, European Commissioner for health and consumer protection, welcomed the EP agreement and said: "Labelling which provides total transparency by listing all ingredients can only boost the confidence of consumers and is a direct response to repeated requests from consumers for better information about the foods they purchase and specifically about their composition.​

I am particularly committed to a revised labelling regime that gives consumers full information about potential allergens. This will provide for no exceptions. It will extend from foodstuffs to include alcoholic beverages,"​ he added.

The proposal will also establish a list of ingredients liable to cause allergies or intolerances and will include alcoholic beverages if they contain an ingredient on the allergen list.

In the recent White Paper on Food Safety, the Commission announced its intention of proposing an amendment to the Labelling Directive 2000/13/EC, in particular the 25 per cent rule. This was introduced into Community legislation more than 20 years ago in order to avoid inordinately long lists of ingredients. It is based on the principle that the consumer knows the composition of compound ingredients and can therefore deduce, for example, that jam added to biscuits is prepared with fruit and sugar.

Since this time food production has become more and more complex, and people eat a lot more processed foods. Over the past few years, consumers have repeatedly expressed the wish to be better informed about the foodstuffs they purchase, and specifically about their composition, even if full ingredient labelling will inevitably make ingredient lists longer. Recent food scares have reinforced this need for information.

The Commission maintains that information is particularly important for certain consumers who suffer from allergies or adverse reactions to certain substances. According to the Commission, the proportion of the population with food allergies or food intolerances is increasing all the time (8 per cent of children and 3 per cent of adults are affected note allergy associations) and new allergens are emerging.

These allergies not only cause illnesses, often of a chronic nature (e.g. atopic dermatitis, urticaria, digestive symptoms), but can also provoke life-threatening reactions (asthma, anaphylactic shock). For these people, the Commission stresses, the lack of detailed information is a handicap, in that they are never sure that the product they are buying does not contain the allergen that can provoke an adverse reaction.

In a statement this week the European Commission states that the new requirements have been drafted with certain 'de minimis' provisions to avoid absurdities or over-regulation, to prevent the risk of labelling becoming too complex and to take account of the technical constraints associated with the manufacture of foodstuffs. Some may say that removing the 25 per cent rule is to automatically introduce a complex system of labelling that will certainly be problematic for the food industry.

The additional labelling requirements will enter into force after a transitional period.