Future remains uncertain for nutrient profiles
10 June 2010
*Comment piece by EAS**
by Miguel Fernandes da Silva
The future of nutrient profiles still remains uncertain following the European Parliament’s vote on the EU’s new proposed law on labeling for foods, on the 16 June.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were split on the most controversial issue discussed in Strasbourg that week. 309 MEPs voted in favour and 309 MEPs voted against the amendment deleting the provision on nutrient profiles from a separate legislation, the EU’s health claims Regulation. Consequently this amendment was rejected.
However, despite the fact that this amendment was rejected the result of the vote marked a clear victory for those supporting the deletion of nutrient profiles. The vote in fact revealed a growing concern within the Parliament over the implementation of this provision under the EU’s health claims Regulation. It should also be noted that following the vote, 5 MEPs had said that they had in fact incorrectly voted against the amendment, whilst 2 other MEPS had said that they had incorrectly voted for this amendment on the 16 June. If these MEPs had voted as they intended a clear majority would have voted for the amendment, with 312 votes in favour and 306 votes against. The Parliament would have then officially called for the deletion of nutrient profiling from the EU’s health claims Regulation and consequently, the Council and Commission would have had to seriously consider it during their discussions on the proposal for labeling for foods.
The provision on nutrient profiles within the EU’s health claims Regulation requires the Commission to elaborate a profiling system to restrict certain products from making nutrition and/or health claims on the basis of their nutritional content.
The amendment to delete nutrient profiles was introduced by some MEPs who believe the concept to be scientifically flawed, as it would establish an arbitrary division of good/bad foods without taking into account an entire diet.
When the amendment was introduced it received a lot of criticism and had hardly any support, especially as the amendment related to a provision that is included in another Regulation. However, it would seem that following a number of intense debates within the Parliament, more and more MEPs have decided they have serious concerns about the concept.
It is unlikely that nutrient profiles will be discussed again during the discussions for the EU’s proposal on labeling for foods as the amendment was rejected in the EP’s first reading. However, the Health and Consumers service within the Commission, DG SANCO, has yet to develop a proposal as to how the system for nutrient profiling will be set up under the EU’s health claims Regulation. This proposal will then have to be approved by the other Commission services at what is called the Interservice Consultation phase. Then, the Commission will have to get the approval of all 27 Member States. Finally the Proposal will undergo the Parliament’s scrutiny, whereby the Parliament can either accept or block it from going through.
DG SANCO may find it difficult to pass its proposal for nutrient profiles through all the other Commission services. The first time this was attempted in Spring 2009, four other services within the Commission: DG Enterprise and Industry; DG Agriculture; Legal Services and the Secretariat-General of the European Commission had stated that they were not in favour of the draft proposal. It will be interesting to see what these services will decide when it comes to their attention again.
In addition, the Commission will have its work cut out trying to convince all 27 Member States to accept their proposal for nutrient profiles, given the concerns that both the Parliament and some Commission services have expressed. Finally, given that there was so much opposition and growing concern over the concept of nutrient profiling amongst the MEPs in its vote on the 16 June, it remains uncertain how the MEPs will react when they are confronted with the details as to how the Commission will elaborate the system of nutrient profiling. With all these obstacles that stand in the way of the adoption of a system of nutrient profiles it is very difficult to be certain of what fate lies ahead for nutrient profiles.
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