The Italian food industry federation Federalimentare is lobbying for the deletion of chapter VI of the draft food information regulation, on the grounds that it will harm competitiveness and confuse consumers.
The European parliament is due to vote on the proposal on Wednesday. The proposal has been controversial since the draft was first published in January 2008. Nutritional labelling schemes have been a particularly thorny point, as the industry has preferred guidance daily amounts but some member state governments have championed rival schemes.
Federalimentare has now come out against Chapter VI of the regulation’s proposal, which would give member states some powers for national provisions as well. It wants to see chapter VI wiped out entirely.
“Member States will be able to prescribe mandatory information on Labels in addition to common norms,” it said in a presentation seen by FoodNavigator.com, “with motivations which have always been qualified by the European Court of Justice as unsuitable to justify obstacles to the free trade”.
Examples of such motivations are given as consumers’ protection, prevention of fraud, protection of industrial and commercial property,
The association is concerned that the chapter will allow member states to make mandatory a whole gamut of different schemes, including organic v conventional, C02 footprint, other environmental aspects of a product and packaging, traceability, human rights and fair trade, GMO presence, special diets, raw material source, and the thorny issue of nutritional labelling.
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