25 September 2000

Europe Calls for Clearer Labelling

The European Parliament is proposing an amendment in the law to improve labelling of compound pet food products. At a session of the European Parliament, 13 September 2000 on the marketing of compound feeding stuffs, a proposal to increase the transparency of ingredients beyond the requirements of EEC Directive 79/373/, seeks to enable the ingredients of compound feeds to be traced and thus to improve the level of information available to the buyer. Under the law as it stands at present, the individual feed materials in compound feedingstuffs are listed in descending order of their proportion of the total weight (the 'semi-open' declaration). In the case of compound pet foods the option also exists of listing the individual ingredients as a percentage of the whole (the 'open' declaration). Individual feed materials may be listed under group headings ('categories') which makes it possible to cover more than one feed material under a single heading (e.g. oils and fats). The draft opinion of The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development stated: "Use of these headings has proved insufficient to provide effective protection of consumer health, particularly in view of the recent cases in which oils and additives have been contaminated with dioxin. A full statement of all feed materials contained in a compound feedingstuff is essential in order to ensure traceability and ascertain the level of contamination where present. It also permits better use to be made of recent discoveries in nutritional physiology and enables feedingstuffs to be used in a way which places less strain on the environment". The Commission therefore proposed the introduction of a compulsory open declaration of individually named feed materials. The Committee duly adopted the proposed amendments of the draft opinion unanimously. Related Sites: Europarl