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The Council of Ministers (27/01/2020) held a debate on Germany's proposal to introduce a voluntary animal welfare labelling system, which would inform consumers about the animal welfare not only on the farm, but also during transport and at slaughter. Transparent labelling of animal welfare could help to improve animal husbandry conditions, reduce dependence on antibiotics, reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance, or strengthen consumer confidence. The general support of the proposal was expressed by most Member States (ES, IT, AT, DK, FR, CY, PT, SE, NL, LV, PL, HU, BE, SI, LU, EL, BG, MT, FI and RO). At the same time, Member States called on the EC to assess the impact of the introduction of this labelling system at EU level. Voluntary labelling already works in DK and NL.
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The association EU FEDIOL, representing the European vegetable oil sector, has rejected the current NutriScore nutrition labelling scheme, but has suggested possible changes. The current NutriScore setting makes it impossible to improve the rating of single-component foods, including vegetable oils and fats, and these foods are classified as C / D, i.e. unhealthy. For these foods, NutriScore recommends reducing their consumption. According to FEDIOL, however, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers vegetable oils with a high content of omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids as beneficial and recommends them as a part of a healthy diet. FEDIOL therefore proposes changes based on existing health and nutrition claims and WHO recommendations on rapeseed oil, walnut oil, soy and olive oil, but also flax oil. The NutriScore system should also be objectively revised, with a review planned for 2021.
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The True Animal Protein Price (TAPP) Coalition aims to raise animal product prices. The aim should be to reduce the consumption of these products and to reduce the environmental and climatic burden. TAPP Coalition refers to a price increase (through meat taxes) with the term “Sustainability Fee for Meat Products”. According to TAPP Coalition, by 2030, beef and veal prices should increase by 47 eurocents/100 g; pork should be increased by 36 eurocent/100 g; chicken meat should then increase by 17 eurocent/100 g. The price increase should start gradually from 2021. According to TAPP, this could lead to a 30% reduction in chicken meat, 57% in pork and 67% in beef meat by 2030. Overall, by 2030, Member States could receive € 32.2 billion annually through meat taxes. The European Parliament should also address the TAPP Coalition requirement.
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Food companies Danone and Nestlé, along with representatives of retail chains E. Leclerc and Carrefour, joined the pact on food expiration dates prepared by the French Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Environment. The initiative was launched thanks to the “Too Good To Go” start-up, which aims to provide consumers with better information about food expiration dates. The overall goal is to reduce the volume of food waste. The companies involved in the pact are committed to strengthening information campaigns as well as strengthening efforts to clarify the difference between the 'use by date' of the product and the 'best before' date.
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The labelling of plant-based alternatives with the names traditionally used for meat products may change after brexit. In 2017, the European Court of Justice judged that purely plant-based products could no longer use dairy names, such as ‘milk’, ‘cheese’, ‘butter’, or ‘yogurt’. In 2019, this decision was also supported by the Committee on Agriculture in its (not yet approved) proposal, in which it supported extending this rule not only to dairy products but also to meat products - so plant-based products cannot use terminology traditionally associated with meat, such as ‘steak’, ‘sausage’, ‘burger’ etc. The UK was the largest market in EU for consumption of plant-based products - up to 40% of the EU meat substitutes market, in the UK is also based a company producing plant-based products (here). With the UK due to withdraw from the European Union, what may reduce the existing obstacles to introducing a ban on the use of meat-related terminology for plant-based products, which could allow a more rapid ban.
More information is available here.