Food Standards Agency
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Listen to this siteTuesday 15 November 2005
The European Commission is committed to reviewing the horizontal labelling directive 2000/13/EC and is expected to publish a discussion paper by the end of 2005 or early in 2006.
It is anticipated that the revision process will include looking at the performance of labels that meet the current requirements of European legislation and also at how food labelling might develop in the future taking into account present challenges and opportunities in the field of information provision such as new technology.
Food labels inform consumers about many different aspects of a product. All this information is presented in a limited amount of space on the label.
Commercial information aside, the consumer is informed about, for example, the content, safety and, increasingly, on the healthiness of a product. In addition, there is increasing pressure from consumers to provide information that is, in general, only of interest to a sub group of the population.
This will include information such as place of origin and production methods.
In contrast, consumer criticisms of current food labelling include a lack of clarity due to the size of lettering, and technical information that is difficult to understand.
Consumer research also shows that much of the information currently provided on the label is not regularly used. Less than a third of the 79% of consumers who actually look at labels look for any information other than durability dates, the amount of fat, salt, and sugar, additives and cooking instructions.
A debate is therefore required about the future provision of information to consumers about the food that they consume.
It needs to address the information that should be provided, format and clarity and the most appropriate way of providing that information. Framework legislation can then be designed to best provide for these outcomes.
The conference is intended to provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to address these issues and to share their experience and perspectives on the problem with policy makers from all the European Community (EC) member states.
Back to topOn the first day of the conference representatives of consumers, small and medium enterprises, large producers, supermarkets and policy makers from the Member States will be present.
Representatives of retailers, manufacturers, consumers and small businesses will make presentations.
They will be invited to provide their views on current labelling legislation, its strengths and weaknesses.
Policymakers are invited to attend and to take this opportunity to learn in a direct and interactive manner from the knowledge of the stakeholders.
Apart from plenary sessions, there will be time for more in-depth exchanges of thoughts through workshops.
The findings of the workshops will be summarised in a plenary session and a report of the first day's discussion will be made.
Back to topIt is hoped that all delegates will take the opportunityfor informal networking with officials and stakeholders from all across the European Community.
Back to topIt is intended that the second day will be restricted only to officials from EU Member States.
It will be an ideal opportunity for policymakers from all over the EU to exchange thoughts on labelling and the upcoming revision.
All this will be done in a much more informal atmosphere than the working groups in Brussels and allow more time for in-depth discussion.
This will provide the opportunity to further explore and debate the issues highlighted during the first day.
Translation into French, English and German will be provided for the plenary sessions of the conference.
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