Food From Nowhere: Producers Reject Calls For Stricter Labels

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/consumer-watchdogs-call-for-more-detail-on-processed-food-labels-a-861411.html



Shoppers in the EU have a hard time determining exactly where processed food products come from. The industry is just fine with that, since such information might sometimes hurt sales. But attempts by consumer watchdogs to tighten labeling requirements have met with little success.


Food From Nowhere: Producers Reject Calls For Stricter Labels
By Charlotte Haunhorst
10/17/2012

When you buy a tomato in a German supermarket, the sign above it tells you where it came from. But if you buy a can of peeled tomatoes in the same store, you can't determine where the tomatoes were grown. Unlike suppliers of fresh produce, producers of so-called processed food products in the European Union are not required to specify the country of origin. The term "processed" applies to all cooked and pureed products, and even to all frozen products.

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German food producers, who for years have bristled at clearer labeling requirements, warned in a statement from their lobbying organization that labels indicating a food's origins would only confuse consumers.

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Of course, industry representatives know that a label that says "made with ingredients from China" isn't exactly good for sales. So far, however, they've had no reason to fear having to provide such information on their products. Attempts by consumer advocates in Berlin and Brussels to tighten labeling requirements have usually failed.

Last year, for example, the European Parliament adopted only a watered-down food labeling regulation. Under the original draft, products containing only one ingredient, such as canned tomatoes, also had to include country-of-origin information in their processed state. Instead, the new legislation only requires producers to provide information about the source of fresh meat. It also doesn't apply to processed animal products, such as yoghurt, ham and cold cuts.



unhappycamper comment: It appears the EU has the same neocon bureaucrats we have in the US.