FSIS and Food Manufacturers Oppose Quantity Labeling of Ingredients for Codex

Food & Drink Weekly,  March 26, 2001  

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The United States opposes revising a Codex standard to require mandatory percentage labeling of all ingredients that represent more than 5 percent of a prepackaged product, Robert Post, Director of Labeling and Compounds, FSIS, said March 16. The existing draft Codex Alimentarius standard on quantitative labeling for prepackaged foods is sufficient to allow consumers to make informed choices, Post said. Post is an alternate delegate to the Codex Committee on Food Labeling (CCFL). Post spoke at a meeting of U.S. delegates to prepare for an upcoming session of CCFL, scheduled for April 30-May 4 in Ottawa, Canada. A final preparatory meeting for U.S. delegates will be held April 11.

However, the United States appreciates the desire of consumers to have additional information about a food product, even if it does not affect the food's safety, nutritional quality, or use in the diet, according to draft U.S. comments. Therefore, it would be beneficial to establish a uniform international format for voluntary labeling, Post said.

Also opposed to mandatory requirements for quantitative declarations of ingredients is the International Council of Grocery Manufacturers Association (ICGMA), according to a position paper distributed by the Grocery Manufacturers of America at the meeting.

USDA and the food manufacturing groups intend to bring up specific points of contention with CCFL at the meeting. These points include retaining the right to not release proprietary information such as trademarked recipes. In addition, it distracts from material information related to product safety and nutritional content and has the potential to confuse and mislead consumers who "have no numerical concept of the appropriate ingredient percentage" in packaged food products. The policy now pending before CCFL is to require food labels to state the percentage of all major ingredients in the ingredient list, the consumer group said.

The ICGMA said it opposes requirements for country of origin labeling of food ingredients, or requirements for more detailed labeling of country of origin of food products. The existing Codex standard already requires country of origin labeling in cases where its omission would mislead or deceive the consumer, ICGMA said.

Expanding country of origin labeling requirements beyond the origin of the food, to the origin of the food's ingredients, is "particularly troublesome," ICGMA said. New Codex work on country of origin labeling should not be undertaken while the WTO is completing its work on harmonization of rules of origin.

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