Brussels, 06/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is proposing to the Parliament and Council that the EU food labelling Directive be amended in order to ensure that all consumers are informed of the complete contents of foodstuffs to enable consumers with allergies to identify any allergenic ingredients that may be present. The Commission's proposal (an amendment to Directive 2000/13/EC) aims to increase transparency and provide greater health protection, and consists of abolishing the "25% rule" which currently means that it is not obligatory to label the components of compound ingredients (such as fruit and sugar in jam in biscuits) that make up less than 25% of the final food product. The 25% rule was introduced into Community legislation more than twenty years ago in order to avoid inordinately long lists of ingredients.
If the Parliament and Council follow in the Commission's footsteps, all ingredients intentionally added will have to be included on the label. The proposal will also establish a list of ingredients liable to cause allergies or intolerance and will include alcoholic beverages if they contain an ingredient on the allergen list. The list of potential allergenic ingredients includes cereals containing gluten and products thereof, crustaceans and products thereof, eggs and products thereof, fish and products thereof, peanuts and products thereof, soybeans and products thereof, milk and dairy products (including lactose), nuts and nut products, sesame seeds and products thereof, and sulphite at concentrations of at least 10 mg/kg in alcoholic drinks.
To prevent the risk of labelling becoming too complex, and to take account of the technical constraints associated with the manufacture of foodstuffs, the Commission authorises some limited derogations (not applicable to allergens) for foodstuffs already covered by EU standards, and a flexibility with regard to the listing of ingredients used in very small quantities. The requirements will come into force after a transitional period to allow companies time to bring product labelling into line with the new provisions
This new proposal clearly forms part of the EU's new food safety policy, but also takes account of the different factors justifying the additional information on the food labels, namely the growing complexity of food production, the huge rise in processed food consumption, consumers' increasing demands to be kept duly informed of the full and exact content of the food on sale against the background of one food crisis after the other, an ever increasing proportion of people suffering from allergies and food intolerance (8% of children and 3% of adults according to associations of allergy sufferers) and the arrival of new allergens.