PROPOSED EU LABEL LAWS THREATEN NUTELLA
Strict EU food labelling laws could spell death for Nutella, the hazelnut and chocolate spread, Italy has claimed.
The Italians fear that new, stricter EU food labelling laws could results in a large decrease in sales for the Nutella brand.
On Wednesday The European Parliament approved a draft proposal which has been drawn up in a bid to fight the rising levels of obesity in Europe.
Under the proposed rules, advertising of any food that exceeds high amounts of salt, sugar and fat would be increasingly limited.
The proposed rules also outline that food companies would have to take responsibility for the contents of their products and therefore will be asked to list the calories, fat and salt content on the front of packages.
Italians have already bitten back at these ideas, claiming that the labelling will scare away consumers and therefore result in a decrease in sales for Nutella and other sweet snacks that are on the market.
Italy’s agriculture and food minister Giancarlo Galan has spoken out and dismissed the proposal as “nonsense.”
His strong feelings against the proposals lead him to write a letter to Brussels asking for a softer approach toward tackling the problems of rising obesity.
Galan spoke out and told reporters:
“Sometimes, the strict application of rules [...] reveals their stupidity”
After much deliberation EU lawmakers rejected proposals for the recognized “traffic light” labels that detail how healthy a product is.
Each 15g portion of Nutella contains 80kcals, 1g of protein, 4.7g fat (2.6g monounsaturated, 1.6g saturated and 0.5g polyunsaturated), and 8.4g of carbohydrate.
Nutella currently combat the high calorie count of their product by comparing a serving to the GDA percentage (Guided Daily Allowance).
One 15g serving is 19% of the GDA, which sounds low however, one 15g serving is 375 calories.
The new laws will make it more difficult for high calorie products like Nutella to disguise these facts on their products labels.
Paolo Fulci, the Ferrero vice president, said in a statement that the EU rules should not be allowed to be brought forward, he said that:
“the rules will affect the most intimate aspects of private life”.
Ferrero is one of Italy’s richest and most successful family-owned companies and the imposing threat of labeling laws is worrying the much loved Italian brand. Due to its Italian heritage, Nutella has a patriotic following who look set to support the brand if the proposed laws threaten its success.
The proposal has yet to be approved by all EU governments and due to this, it is unlikely to be finalised before 2012.
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