Food giant Mars has pulled out of the Evolved Nutrition Labelling (ENL) enterprise, citing a lack of widespread support and lack of credibility and consensus as the main reasons. The company is now calling for an EU wide labelling system for food.
The ENL initiative was unveiled last year and in similar to the traffic light system used on UK food labels. It uses a colour coded system, giving customers information on sugar, salt and fat content in food and drinks. One of the main differences of the ENL system is that the colours would be assigned to portion sizes below 60g unlike the UK system which works on a ‘per 100g’ system.
“To this end, we will continue to engage and lead in advocating for an EU-wide, interpretative approach to nutrition labelling. We need a pan-European solution, for all EU consumers to benefit from it and to reduce complexity and cost to businesses.”
FoodDrinkEurope has also called for a coordination throughout EU member states, stating that the introduction of national food labelling systems (such as those in France and the UK) undermines the EU single market.