BEUC NEWS - 20.01.2025

According to popular belief, today is ‘Blue Monday’, the saddest day of the year. BEUC and six of its member organisations [1], denounce in a new video the EU Commission’s 16-year failure to prevent unhealthy foods misleadingly using nutrition and health claims. 

The 2006 Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation committed the European Commission to coming forward with nutrient profiles by 19 January 2009. These nutrient profiles would have set limits on the levels of sugar, salt and/or fats, above which a food or beverage would not be able to use a claim on the packaging or for marketing purposes. 

Incredibly, it has now been 16 years since nutrient profiles should have been set.

Our new video shows how many unworthy claims consumers are exposed to and why we feel a bit ‘blue’ about it.

Whether it’s a sugar-laden kids’ breakfast cereal crowing about Vitamin D or high-fat salty processed meat boasting about protein, consumers are left to navigate misleading claims. 

Same old

It is not the first time BEUC has called on the EU Commission to live up to its responsibilities regarding profiles. In 2019, we marked the 10-year delay with a video addressing the then EU Commissioner for food and health, featuring an anniversary cake. Prior to that, we collected examples of dodgy claims all over Europe and teamed up with health organisations and food industry players to call the Commission out.

What next?

The new EU Commission, which took office a month ago, has an opportunity to finally ‘turn our frowns upside down’. Ending this outrageous delay and proposing nutrient profiles can help fulfil the original aims of the regulation: to protect consumers from misleading claims. This is an important step to help curb the obesity epidemic where 1 in 3 European children are overweight or obese.

Background

In the absence of nutrient profiles, foods may bear claims when they meet the conditions set out in the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (1924/2006), regardless of their fats/salt and/or sugar content. 

For example, currently a breakfast cereal may use ‘source of fibre’ when it contains at least 3 g of fibre per 100 g or at least 1,5 g of fibre per 100 kcal even if it contains high amounts of nutrients of concern such as sugar. 

The Regulation outlined why nutrient profiles are necessary: “to avoid a situation where nutrition or health claims mask the overall nutritional status of a food product, which could mislead consumers when trying to make healthy choices in the context of a balanced diet”.

ENDS

[1] In alphabetical order: DECO (Portugal), EKPIZO (Greece), Forbrugerrådet Tænk (Denmark), OCU (Spain), Testachats (Belgium) and ZPS (Slovenia).