The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) has revised its guidance on
the use of words such as 'fresh', 'natural' and 'pure' to provide
clearer advice to manufacturers.
Food businesses have suffered from confusing government policies,
said the UK's Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which hopes Prime
Minister Brown's new strategy will provide greater clarity.
The need for new European legislation on nutrition labelling has
been called into question by the CIAA (Confederation of Food and
Drink Industries in Europe), as a survey indicates that uptake of
its voluntary scheme has been significant.
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly joining
larger manufacturers in embracing voluntary food labelling,
developed by the EU food and drink industry.
The German government is keeping industry guessing about its
preferred scheme for nutrition labelling, performing about turns
between favouring a traffic light scheme or guidance daily amounts
(GDA).
The CIAA has highlighted several important areas of debate and
strategic consideration for food manufacturers, which it is
planning to address at its annual conference in November.
Owen Warnock, partner and food law expert at international law firm
Eversheds, unpicks the new EU labelling proposal and assesses what
it may mean for food manufacturers.
The European Commission will vote on legislation to introduce
mandatory regulations for food and drink labelling across Europe,
putting an end to the current inconsistency.
