Following the publication of the Farm to Fork Strategy, the European farming community welcomes any measure encouraging consumers to adopt a healthy diet. However, the community feels the need to express some serious concerns about the proposal of the mandatory front-of-pack nutrition (FOPNL) labelling outlined in the strategy.
Therefore, Copa and Cogeca have sent a letter to the European Commission underlining that any new type of nutrition labelling should truly help consumers in making healthy food choices and not mislead them, disrupt the market, discriminate against healthy products, or penalise products which are part of our cultural and culinary heritage.
European farmers and agri-cooperatives believe that a colour-coded nutrition labelling system would end up presenting an over-simplistic classification of food products that stigmatises highly nutritious products which are praised for their nutritional value by nutritionists all over the world, such as olive oil.
It also discriminates against many Geographical Indications (GIs) and Traditional Specialties Guaranteed (TSGs) products for which reformulation is not possible. Those products represent an economic value of more than 77,15 billion euros per year, and 7% of the total sales value of EU food and drink products.
Source: Copa and Cogeca.