Planet

BREAKING NEWS. ‘Big Food’ calls for semaphores on labels

March 5, 2017

For several years now, the European Commission has been cultivating the exercise of meeting with representatives of the private sector-the food industry and distribution ‘first and foremost’ -in a vain attempt to curb the continuing march of this century’s epidemic, overweight obesity and related diseases. And here’s the big surprise, ‘Big Food’ promotes traffic lights on the label.

The ‘EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health’ has long been dedicated in promoting various engagements – in synergy between public authorities, NGOs, and industry and retail representatives – aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles and balanced diets. In the face of a dramatic fact, the unsustainable growth in social and public health costs resulting from the ‘bad behavior’ of European citizens.

Commitments made by ‘Big Food’ so far, however, have not had any favorable effect on the health conditions of the European population, as they have been mostly ‘window-dressing’ statements, so-called ‘greenwashing, ‘ wittily calibrated not to disturb lucrative business.

Obesity and overweight, moreover, can be largely attributed to the spread of Nutritionally unbalanced foods, the so-called ‘junk foods’, which big industry has developed with the sole rationale of increasing margins, (1) without regard for the health of consumers, let alone the health of the little ones.

And here is the turning point. Coca Cola and Pepsi Co, Mars and Mondelez, Nestlé and Unilever are set to declare-at the next meeting of the European Platform for Diet, Physical Activity and Health on March 9, 2017-their support for traffic lights on labels. The so-called ‘traffic lights system’, which was introduced at the time on a voluntary basis by the British GDO with the support of consumer associations (2) and later adopted by the health administration across the Channel.

The traffic light system in labeling Has recently been given the green light by the European Commission, after two years of scrutiny imposed mainly by the Italian government, following pressure from Ferrero in particular, who has been leading an all-out battle against any scheme attributable to so-called nutrient profiles. That is, tools for classifying individual foods on the basis of their contents in fat, saturated fat, simple sugars and salt.

As a result of this stance by the major industrial ‘players ,’ the European Commission should consider recognizing the British synthetic nutrition information system as the model to be promoted in the Internal Market. (3) It is doubtful that such an initiative will be enough to reverse the course of still growing childhood obesity, since for this purpose it is in any case essential to intervene on so-called product reformulation (4) and to introduce strict limits on the advertising of so-called junk food (or ‘indulgence foods,’ as defined by its producers). But it is certain, a good step forward.

From words to deeds, the position adopted by 6 of the 10 ‘big food sisters’ will have a strong impact on competition in the relevant commodity sectors, (5) stimulating the overall evolution of recipes toward the proper balance of their nutritional properties. However, close vigilance will need to be maintained on each group’s behavior in different member countries, on both fronts of improving nutritional profiles and advertising self-regulation. Lest the solemn words uttered by their representatives in Brussels produce the sole result of preventing new taxes (e.g. ‘soda tax’, ‘sugar tax’), only to be belied by the irresponsible practices of their subsidiaries in the different territories.

Dario Dongo

Notes

(1) The deadly mix of fat, sugar and salt, as scholar Michael Moss has shown, is even capable of stimulating addictions to unbalanced foods, with seriously negative effects on health

(2) The British Consumer Association. ‘Which?’, together with the European confederation BEUC, and AltroConsumo in Italy, have consistently advocated the use of synthetic nutrition information schemes to help consumers distinguish between so-called HFSS foods (‘High Fats, Sugars and Sodium‘) thanks to special color codes, green yellow and red, like precisely those in traffic light signaling

(3) Pursuant to reg. EU 1169/11 in fact, ‘By December 13, 2017, in light of the experience gained, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the use of additional forms of expression and presentation, their effect on the internal market, and whether these forms of expression and presentation should be further harmonized’ (Art. 35.5)

(4) Food ‘reformulation’ is understood to mean the modification of their recipes for health purposes. On this front, all the operators in the Italian market have already achieved significant results thanks to the removal of palm oil, which has enabled the drastic reduction of fats and saturated fats in particular on most of the confectionery and bakery products on offer

(5) Missing from the roll call are the large sugar users Kellogg’s, AB (‘Associated British Foods‘, in whose group ‘AB Sugar’ is included), ‘General Mills’, as well as Danone (still awaiting the developments of the systems meanwhile developed in France, its motherland). Outside the ’10 big sisters’ we note the predictable absence of Ferrero, historically entrenched in defending its recipes, and Barilla. The latter, moreover, following the revolution caused by Coop Italia, has progressively eliminated palm, setting out on a path to improve the nutritional profiles of its references

Dario Dongo

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Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.