Compulsory country-of-origin food labelling could become mandatory for all meat, poultry, dairy products and other single-ingredient products sold in the EU after it was accepted by the European Parliament yesterday. In a first vote on new EU regulation on food labels, the Parliament rejected proposals from left-wing groups to impose a traffic-light system on labels to indicate high, medium or low levels of salt, sugar and fat. The Parliament did, however, support a proposal that fat, saturates,... ...Read more »

First came the attack on bread for containing too much salt, now according to British Heart Foundation, some of the nation’s curries have five times above the recommended daily amount of salt. The UK study, conducted by specialists at Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) investigated the salt content in curries at 787 takeaways, ready meals, cooking sauces, chutneys, pickles and side dishes. The biggest survey of its kind found a traditional curry with all the usual accompaniments contained... ...Read more »

European politicians have voted against imposing traffic-light nutrition labels on foodstuffs sold across the EU. Members of the European Parliament, sitting on the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, decided against making the use of traffic lights mandatory but said EU member states may adopt national rules. Two weeks ago, the UK’s Food Standards Agency recommended the use of “flexible” front-of-pack labelling scheme that would include text, traffic lights and Guideline... ...Read more »

The UK’s Food Standard Agency this morning (10 March) agreed to the implementation of a single approach to front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling.At an open meeting held in Cardiff today, the FSA’s board said food businesses will now be encouraged to use all three elements – traffic light colours (red, amber and green), text (high, medium or low) and percentage Guideline Daily Amounts (% GDAs) – on the front of packaging. Businesses are also being encouraged to ensure that... ...Read more »

Researchers from the University of Buffalo in the US have published a study suggesting that increasing the prices of unhealthy foods could do more to prevent obesity than subsidising healthy foods. In the study, New York mothers were placed in a mock-up supermarket, with cards showing product images and prices, and were invited to spend a limited amount of money buying foods for their family.  Researchers found that increasing the prices of unhealthy foods caused the participants to purchase lower... ...Read more »

McDonald’s has been allowed to continue operating at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne despite calls from health groups to ban the fast food giant on the grounds that it sends a bad health message. A compromise has been reached, according to the Herald Sun, which will see the fast food giant operate under new Australian-first conditions. The chain will be required to ensure half of their menu is full of healthy food, which will be subjected to a traffic light system – with... ...Read more »