Nutritional information: do we know what we are eating?

The European Economic Community (EEC) has made slow progress towards achieving a unified position on the labelling of foods with nutrition information. The Nutrition Labelling Rules Directive (90/496/EEC) was adopted in September 1990, and will take 5 years to become fully implemented. Nutrition labelling will remain voluntary unless a nutrition claim is made, when detailed declarations must be made in a specified form. A second Directive, which will require selected nutrients to be the subject of compulsory labelling, has support in principle, but the outcome of the current legislative programme will be monitored before these are considered again. Not only will the information provided about foods become more comprehensive and useful, but the wider range of ‘foods’ and ‘food businesses’ now defined under the Food Safety Act 1990 means that all food materials from farm products through to prepacked foods on retail sale will be the subject of new legislation. It is important for nutritionists to ensure that full and accurate information is available on foods so that consumers can make an informed choice when eating a healthy diet which meets current recommendations (Department of Health, 1991a, 6 ) . Though information on foods will be incomplete, because of the current voluntary nature of the law, efforts must still be directed towards the development of information systems which can support all foods sold, both for household use, and foods eaten out. The Food Advisory Committee (FAC) has been asked to review the problem in the latter group which now comprises some 25% of our food consumption. In the current stage of legislative control, unless satisfactory systems are available to caterers, the operational problems of providing the required information may well prove to be a major disincentive to food businesses to innovate and widen their range of healthy eating alternatives.