On 16 June, the EP voted in plenary on a 2008 Commission proposal for new legislation on providing food information to consumers. The proposal combines existing rules on food labelling and nutritional information into one regulation. The aim is to make food labels clearer and more relevant to consumers, without introducing excessive labelling costs for the packaging industry. The regulation includes specific requirements for displaying information on the front of packaging. A significant part of the discussion centrered around "traffic-light" labelling supposed to provide dietary information. It seems that the some balance has been struck, in the new legislation, between the need to inform consumers, without imposing unnecessary and often illegible labels on food packages, a permanent challenge for quality regulation. Some countries, such as the Netherlands, do not consider third party labelling as administrative burdens. For background information, see Euractiv dossier.
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