Food labelling - industry lobby trounces consumer info. & animal welfare
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"This is a good deal for industry, not for consumers" Kartika Liotard said after today's vote on new EU food labelling rules agreed between Parliament and Council.
"The Sommer report that has just been voted through means important information will remain absent from food labels and consumers could be misled. Instead of information on nutritional values per 100 grams, manufacturers can now use the values ​​per serving to give the impression that there are fewer calories in the product - pure deception! Also, we will not have labelling of transfats, which are harmful to health."
"Today is a bad day for animal welfare as origin labelling will only be for fresh meat, not for meat preparations or meat as an ingredient in food, milk or dairy products, so animals will continue to be dragged around the continent in bad conditions. Similarly, on what would be Dolly the sheep's 15th birthday (had she not died from lung disease and severe arthritis at just six years of age), food from cloned animals will still go unlabelled."
Rounding off a weak piece of legislation, MEPs also chose to keep consumers in the dark over un-stunned ritually slaughtered meat.
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European United Left / Nordic Green Left
European Parliamentary Group
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