EAS adviser Miguel da Silva said that, contrary to previous indications, the Commission will now not present the proposal for a vote at the 27 March ‘Standing Committee on General Food Law’ meeting.
The scheme is part of the EU’s Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation, and aims to determine which food products will be able to bear nutrition and/or health claims. With the establishment of nutrient profiles, the EC wants to protect consumers from being misled where foods high in saturated fats, sugars and salt may be made to seem healthier choices when accompanied by a nutrition or health claim.
According to the regulation, a nutrient profiling system was required to be adopted by 19 January this year, but due to a lack of consensus on various issues, the system has not yet been adopted.
Miguel da Silva said that, as a result, the final adoption of the profiling system will now not be possible before the June European parliament elections. The final system must be approved by the parliament under a regulatory procedure with scrutiny, which will only be possible from September 2009 when the new legislature starts its activities.
“It now seems more likely that the adoption will only take place by the end of 2009, or even early in 2010,” said da Silva. “Since this is a highly complex issue, in our view this is a positive delay, as it will allow more time for the regulators to carefully consider the overall impact of the system being developed on the food industry.”
He continued: “We understand the inter-service consultation within the Commission on the latest draft proposal raised a wide number of problematic issues, which are now being dealt with. At this stage, it’s difficult to know the extent of the changes that will be made to the latest draft, but we understand these would be quite significant.”
A new draft is expected to be circulated in the next few days as a discussion on nutrient profiles is scheduled to take place at the next Standing Committee meeting on 27 March.
Source: European Advisory Services
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