Special Report
Food labelling – the devil in the detail
A new EU Regulation on food labelling will be published by the end of 2011 and will come into force in late 2014. It may cause problems for suppliers, caterers and airlines. Richard Williams reports
The EU has adopted a new proposal on the provision of food information to consumers. The main objectives of the legislation are: to make key nutrition information more widely available; to make nutrition labelling more easily understandable; and to create a level playing field for companies to compete. In simple terms, the new Regulation seeks first
of all to ensure that consumers of foodstuffs are given packaging information on 14 classes of allergens. It also seeks to ensure that they are given detailed nutrition information – however, this part of the Regulation does not come into force for five years. In accordance with EU Communication 93/456,
“foodstuffs and nutrition labelling must be provided in a language ‘easily understood’ by the buyer…. In this context, the Commission encourages multilingual information and preserves the freedom of Member States to require use of the language of the country of consumption.” Which means that any item sold may be required to include legal text information in the language of the country it is sold in. This would create problems for suppliers, airlines and inflight caterers, as they typically sell foodstuffs in the air between two countries. It is simple enough to include packaging legal text in two languages. Most packaging has legal text in several languages. However, in these days of increased mobility,
with low-cost carriers (LCCs) flitting around Europe and beyond, it is difficult to know where the product stocked in a bar-cart will eventually be sold. An aircraft from an LCC may well be directed onto another route at short notice, and may visit several countries before stock is exhausted. That would risk the foods sold on board contravening food labelling regulations. The new regulations make a distinction between pre-packed foods, e.g. chocolate bars, crisps, and drinks, and non pre--packed foods, e.g. a typical airline meal assembled on board.
Could this mock-up represent the food label of the future? 34
www.onboardhospitality.com
Non pre-packed foods are, at the moment, exempted from most of the regulations, but not those concerning the 14 classes of allergens. EU member states not only have the option of demanding that their language is used for labelling, but also that the regulations on mandatory nutrition declaration be extended to non pre-packed foods.
“The new Regulation seeks first of all to ensure that consumers of foodstuffs are given packaging information on 14 classes of allergens.”
Most manufacturers of pre-packed foods already provide labelling in several languages. A spokesperson at Mars says that their labelling on chocolate bars is typically in four languages. Their 51g Mars bar, for example, is labelled in English, German, Danish and Spanish. However,
there is a limit on the amount of space on a chocolate bar wrapper, and therefore the number of languages you can fit on it. The legal text must be of a sufficient size to be compliant with the legibility and clarity requirements of the legislation. Mars added: ”It is just not practicable to include
more languages on a wrapper that is only 10cm long. To restock a bar-cart with an alternative, differently labelled product would take at least 30 minutes on the ground. Most LCCs can’t afford that delay, so may face the prospect of not being compliant by selling wrongly labelled goods, or withdrawing them from sale on certain flights. If they can’t sell products on a particular flight, that damages airline profits, affects our business and inconveniences the customer too.”
If you have any comments on the food labelling issue, please email
jo.austin@
onboardhospitality.com
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