Manufacturers of breakfast cereals in the UK have come under fire this week by campaign group Action on Sugar for "deliberately" confusing shoppers over the sugar content of their products. Action on Sugar says that the colour coding or “traffic light” labelling scheme is being used in differing ways across products, making consumers unsure whether some products contain unhealthy sugar levels.

The Norwegian government has introduced new labelling for pre-packaged products which will make it easier to see how much salt a food product contains. The labelling scheme was necessary because Norwegians currently consume twice as much salt as they should.

Italy, together with France, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Romania, has urged the European Commission to urgently address the current unfavourable situation in the rice market by putting into place operational measures to support the sector, Italy’s Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies has announced.

The Romanian parliament has drafted a law imposing additional labelling requirements on local producers, processors and importers of honey.

Nutritional information and alcohol content will feature on 500ml cans of the beer brand Guinness sold in Ireland as part of an initiative by drinks giant Diageo. Drinks companies have been under pressure for some years to provide nutritional labelling on alcoholic drinks, ever since they were exempt from such labelling in the EU’s Food Information to Consumers (FIC) regulation.

A type of smoked salmon processed in three boroughs of London has won European Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status. The EU award was welcomed by Michael Gove, the UK environment secretary, as a testament to the country’s food culture.

The European Commission has this week approved the addition of a Turkish food product to the EU's register of Protected Designations of Origin (PDO).  "Malatya Kayısısı", a dried apricot, is the third Turkish product to win protected status under the EU scheme. Significantly, the award ceremony was also used by EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan to promote closer trade between the EU and Turkey.

The European Commission has granted Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status to a pork sausage from Poland this week. More details about the EU’s agricultural produce schemes can be found on our Eurofood Monitor site here.

Spanish centre right MEP, Pilar Ayuso, has stressed the importance of protecting existing geographical indications (GIs) in a draft report on a proposal to revise EU rules on the definition, presentation and labelling of spirit drinks.

A draft law that manufacturers warn would wipe out many total diet replacement (TDR) products for weight loss could be vetoed by the European Parliament.

A group of national and sectoral food industry associations are calling on the Commission not to enact nutrient profiles and warning they could hit traditional products protected by geographical indications (GIs).

The US FDA has granted a petition by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) that waives the labelling of soy lecithin after finding its products will not cause an allergic response when used as a release agent applied to food contact substances.

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority is carrying out an audit of dairy product labels in Norwegian stores. The reason for this is that inadequate labelling of foods may pose a health risk, and may mislead consumers. The audit will take a closer look at ingredient lists, ingredient quantities, nutrition labelling, allergens, and package claims regarding “light” products, sugar, fat, protein and fibre.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is running a month-long campaign aimed at ensuring that food businesses are applying the correct allergen labelling to their products.  The authority has also said a tenth food is expected to be added this month to the current list of nine foods that must be declared as allergens.

With a growing number of recalls associated with allergens and an increasing number of consumers who suffer from food allergies, allergens will likely be the next big challenge that the food industry will battle in the coming decades. From labelling and testing, to establishing safety practices, the food industry is only beginning to see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues related to allergens, says Shawn Stevens, founder of Food Industry Counsel Inc., which represents food industry clients.

The Swedish National Food Administration, along with several other Nordic country food authorities, is currently carrying out checks to ensure that food businesses are complying with allergen labelling legislation.

Allergen labelling is to be required on caseins and their water-soluble form caseinates, from 22 December 2016, even though the milk proteins are only sold business-to-business (B2B).

The self-policing food industry group in Norway that protects against marketing to children, the MFU, is in agreement with lodged complaints against Mondelez, Orkla Confectionary & Snacks, and Ringnes regarding their use of YouTube stars in order to promote their products. The group states that the content’s humour is especially appealing to younger audiences, and is thus in violation of Norwegian regulations.  

Manufacturers of breakfast cereals in the UK have come under fire this week by campaign group Action on Sugar for "deliberately" confusing shoppers over the sugar content of their products. Action on Sugar says that the colour coding or “traffic light” labelling scheme is being used in differing ways across products, making consumers unsure whether some products contain unhealthy sugar levels.

An email sent out by UK baby and children’s retailer, Mothercare, promoting Nestlé’s SMA PRO Follow-On Milk product, sparked a complaint from the campaign group Baby Milk Action. The group claimed that the advert confused infant formula with follow-on formula but the regulator disagreed in a ruling published today.

Manufacturers of breakfast cereals in the UK have come under fire this week by campaign group Action on Sugar for "deliberately" confusing shoppers over the sugar content of their products. Action on Sugar says that the colour coding or “traffic light” labelling scheme is being used in differing ways across products, making consumers unsure whether some products contain unhealthy sugar levels.

The Romanian parliament has drafted a law imposing additional labelling requirements on local producers, processors and importers of honey.

The Loc Troi group’s bid to have its claim for Vibigaba (germinated brown rice) contributing to long-term maintenance of normal blood glucose concentration authorised at EU level has ended with a negative opinion from the European Food Safety Authority.