§ Miss Emma Nicholsonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he expects to make regulations on the labelling of foods with their fat content, and to issue guidelines on the voluntary declaration of the nutrient content of food.
§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will consider introducing an official standard of labelling designed to provide consumers with nutritional information about dairy products.
§ Mr. Donald ThompsonSince we circulated our proposals for comment early in 1986, my officials have been in extensive discussions with the Commission of the European Communities about the compatibility of our proposals for fat content labelling with Community law. Those discussions are continuing. We had originally intended that guidelines for full nutrition labelling should be issued in parallel with fat content labelling regulations, but in view of the delay, and the increasing need for a standard approach in the market place to the provision of 627W nutrition information on food labels, I have decided to issue now the guidelines for voluntary nutrition labelling of food. The final version of the guidelines takes account of the comments received on the draft circulated in February 1986.
It is my intention in the longer term that the form in which nutrition information provided voluntarily on food labels is given should be controlled by law, but it is sensible to defer any decisions on this until we have seen these guidelines in action for a while and we have more details of the EC Commission's known plans for a Community system of voluntary nutrition labelling. In the meantime, I commend the approach set out in the guidelines, particularly to food manufacturers and retailers responsible for nutrition labelling, in the interests of ensuring that consumers receive nutrition information in a standard form.
I am also circulating for comment proposals for minor amendments to the Food Labelling Regulations 1984 to ensure that those who voluntarily provide statements of the basic nutrient content of foods for the benefit of consumers do not offend against those provisions of the regulations which protect consumers against misleading claims. These proposals are being circulated to those organisations representative of interests which will be substantially affected by them, as required by the Food Act 1984.
I have arranged for copies of both documents to be placed in the Library of the House.