News

Nestlé, a Swiss food company, will introduce nutrition labelling for foods using the Nutri-Score colour scheme. The label will be used in countries that have officially accepted the Nutri-Score as the main nutrition label for foods (AT, BE, FR, DE and CH) since the first half of 2020. All other products wholly owned by Nestlé (e.g. Kit-Kat chocolate, Chocapic, Nescafé coffee) will be labelled with NutriScore over the next 2 years. Dutch State Secretary for Health and Sport Paul Blokhuis said last week that the Netherlands will also adopt a Nutri-Score system. However, the Netherlands will only adopt NutriScore since mid-2021, as some aspects of the colour scheme do not fully comply with the Dutch nutrition and dietary guidelines.
More information is available here and here.

The McDonald's fast food chain launched innovative ‘Better M’ platform on 14/11/2019, which aims to introduce environmentally positive changes in the sustainable supply chain, minimize plastic volumes and recycle packaging materials in the European Union. One of the first steps should be to replace plastic caps for some products with innovative fibre-based caps, which in France alone will reduce the volume of plastics by 1,200 tonnes. The lids should be replaced throughout the European Union by the end of 2020. Likewise, McDonald's is now testing alternatives for plastic spoons, paper or wooden spoon options, and straw drinking straws.
More information is available here.

In the second half of November 2019 over 14,300 sheep drowned in the Romanian port, because of the overthrow of a ship carrying animals. In this context, MEPs and environmental organizations call for strong European initiatives on the transport of animals, and environmental organizations also called on the European Commission to launch infringement proceedings against Romania. MEP Anja Hazekamp (NL, GUE/NGL), President of the European Parliament's Welfare and Animal Welfare Intergroup, supported discussing unacceptable animal welfare conditions when transporting live animals to third countries during the European Parliament plenary session. In addition, Hazekamp has supported for the long time the establishment of a commission of inquiry to assess whether European rules on the transport of live animals are respected. Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis (replaced by Stella Kyriakides from 01/12/2019) called on Romania to stop all transport of live animals by ship until the current case has been investigated. However, Romania stated that it had complied with all European rules and that the space allocated to animals on board was 10% larger than required by European legislation. This is the second animal welfare problem in the transport of live animals in Romania in recent months - in July 2019, Romania exported over 70,000 live sheep to the Gulf countries, with outdoor temperatures up to 40 ° C. The issue of transport of live animals should also be one of the items on the agenda of the Council of Ministers of Agriculture on 16/12/2019.

On 25/11/2019 the British BBC broadcast document focusing on livestock breeding for the production of meat products and meat. The BBC emphasized the need to reduce meat consumption in the context of environmental and climate protection. According to the BBC, to meet the demand for meat products, cattle populations have risen by 400 million over the past 50 years, the number of pigs has doubled, and the number of chickens increased five times, with devastating effects on ecosystems, intense river pollution and global warming. A number of British farmers have already opposed the document.
More information is available here.

Member State experts voted in the last week of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed on the ban on emergency authorizations for the use of neonicotinoids in Romania and Lithuania. Romania and Lithuania are among the EU Member States most permitting the extraordinary uses of three types of neonicotinoids which have been banned in the European Union except for use in greenhouses, due to their negative impact on pollinators. Given the current rules on voting in committees, elections by Member States are secret, so Member States not need to indicate whether they have voted in favour or against. If the committees repeatedly disagree, the decision is returned to the European Commission, which prepared the draft legislation or opinion under discussion. Former President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has repeatedly criticized the system, stating that it is not democratic for Member States to transfer responsibility for decision-making to the European Commission in the event of a disagreement. However, the rules on voting in committees have not been changed, so the issue of emergency permits for the use of neonicotinoids in Romania and Lithuania will probably have to be decided by the European Commission.