Parliamentary question - E-3425/2009Parliamentary question
E-3425/2009

Reference intakes for food

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3425/09
by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE)
to the Commission

The European Commission’s proposal for a regulation on the provision of food information to consumers (COM(2008)0040) includes a proposal for the revision of nutrition labelling legislation (Directive 90/496/EEC[1] on nutrition labelling for foodstuffs). With regard to nutrition labelling, it has been proposed that the nutrition information on six nutrition elements (energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars and salt) should be expressed on the basis of 100 g or 100 ml and as a percentage of a reference intake. The reference intake values contained in Annex XI Part B of the proposal are based on industry figures produced by the UK’s Institute of Grocery Distribution and widely used by the food industry.

It is my understanding that, following discussions with Member States, the Commission requested the EFSA to review these reference intake figures with a view to providing advice on them by the end of April 2009.

1. Can the Commission please advise if this opinion has already been completed or when it is due?

2. Given the fact that the EFSA received the request at the beginning of November 2008 with a tight deadline for April 2009, can the Commission give its assurance that all scientific evidence on reference intakes has been taken into account by the EFSA Panel during the development of the advice?

OJ C 189, 13/07/2010