The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted draft legislation mandating country-of-origin labeling for seafood and other meats and nutrition labeling on all food packaging.
The legislation is designed to enable consumers to make "healthy, well-informed" food choices, while limiting the administrative and financial burden on food companies.
The final vote in Parliament was 559 in favor, 54 against and 32 abstentions. The legislation is only a draft and is likely to return to Parliament to be tweaked. Once the legislation is enacted, food companies will have three years to abide by the rules, and smaller food companies with fewer than 100 employees and less than EUR 5 million in annual turnover, will have five years to comply.
"Overall I am satisfied with the result of today’s important vote on clearer food information rules," said MEP Renate Sommer of Germany, who drafted the report.
However, Parliament rejected the proposed "traffic light system," which would have required certain processed foods to bear red, yellow and green tags to indicate high, medium or low levels of salt, sugar and fat.
"Personally, I am pleased that MEPs did not support traffic light labeling, but I also feel that we can continue to improve the current proposal to better inform consumers," said Sommer.
"Sixty percent of the fish we eat is imported into the EU and in most cases not reared under the same strict environmental and regulatory regimes. We need to ensure that our systems create level playing fields for our communities and our industries," added MEP Diane Dodds of Northern Ireland.
