Brussels, 02/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - BEUC, the European consumers' organisation, has welcomed the resolution adopted on Wednesday 1 April by the European Parliament environment committee (ENVI) for an alcohol strategy a strategy that has been a long time coming (see EUROPE 11287). In calling or compulsory labelling of nutritional and ingredient information, MEPs have indeed brought grist to the BEUC mill.
“We applaud the European Parliament ENVI resolution urging the Commission to act on alcohol labelling. We now expect the Commission to adopt with no further delay the report on the exemption of alcoholic beverages from ingredient and nutrition labelling requirements (Regulation EU No 1169/2011). Scrapping alcohol information fully contradicts the essence of the food information regulation, which is to enhance consumers' knowledge of what they eat and drink”, said Ilaria Passarani, Head of BEUC's Food and Health Department. If the EU is as serious as it claims about informing consumers and tackling obesity, giving a chance to alcohol labelling is a first step, she stated.
Firmly convinced that consumers have a right to know what is in the food and drink they consume, BEUC recently wrote to the European Commission, urging it to finally present the report initially planned for 31 December 2014 on whether European rules on consumer information on foodstuffs should, in future, also be applied to alcoholic drinks. (Aminata Niang)