BRUSSELS, Belgium—EAS issued a reminder to industry that food companies have five years to implement the mandatory nutrition labeling rules of the EU’s recently adopted Food Information to Consumers Regulation. Officially, the five-year countdown begins on Dec. 13, 2011.
“The new food labeling regulation means inevitable changes for companies," said Xavier Lavigne, Food Law Manager at EAS. “The costs of conforming to the mandatory nutrient content rules will most likely hit the smaller food companies more than the larger ones, as many of the larger companies already have some type of nutrition labeling which will simply need to be adapted. However, for those companies wanting to voluntarily label their products with nutrition information any time between 13 December 2014 when the regulation becomes applicable and 13 December 2016 when the transition period for nutrition labeling ends, they will have to comply with the regulations for nutrition declaration, regardless of the given transition period."
The regulation requires a mandatory label declaration of the ‘Big 7’—energy, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, protein and salt—by 13 December 2016. It also requires that these be expressed per 100g/100ml and, where appropriate, per portion. The regulation also includes new rules on allergen labeling and legibility.
“The regulation introduces a minimum font size of 1.2mm for all mandatory label information, and 0.9mm for products whose packaging has a largest surface of less than 80cm2," said Lavigne. “For manufacturers it means that knowing how to use the space on certain packages will be key. Already some companies are looking into the creation of understandable symbols in order to gain space and to deal with multilingual challenges. Most companies in the food sector will be pressured into a detailed review of their product packaging in the months and years to come."
