A July 6 vote on a new food-labeling system will provide more information for EU consumers. Currently, beef, fresh fruit and vegetable packages, fish, olive oil and honey sold in the EU require labels revealing their country of origin. The new legislation will extend such labels to poultry, pork and lamb, and the European Commission will assess the benefits of expanding the country-of-origin labeling to additional foods. Labels on prepackaged food will also be required to show energy content, fats, sugar and salt, as well as disclose nutritional information and the presence of allergenic materials and imitation foods, such as cheese replicas made from vegetable oil. Food producers can either use the current Guideline Daily Amounts or opt to use the term “per portion” on labels and will have up to five years to transfer to the new labels. Food from smaller producers and non-prepackaged produce will be exempt from the labeling system.

Source: BBC News