Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 114: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding the development of national food labelling legislation; the action being taken to create common nutrition guideline labelling across the food industry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37494/08]

Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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At present general EU food labelling legislation is harmonised by Council Directive 2000/13/EC, while nutrition labelling is covered by Directive 40/96. Both have been transposed into Irish law. The former requires that the labelling of pre-packaged foodstuffs must be clear and must not mislead the consumer. The nutrition labelling legislation makes allowance for nutrition labelling on a voluntary basis only, although it becomes compulsory when a nutrition or health claim is made in the labelling, presentation or advertising of a foodstuff or when vitamins or minerals are voluntarily added to foods.

In January 2008, the European Commission presented its proposals on the updating and harmonising of labelling legislation. The draft proposal consolidates and updates general food and nutrition labelling. The main points of the proposal are mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling (for energy value, amounts of fat, saturates, carbohydrates with specific reference to sugars and salt), allergen labelling, alcohol labelling (excluding wine, beer and spirits, which are being dealt with separately), text size, allowance for use of GDAs or Traffic Lights labelling, Country of Origin labelling and a provision for National Schemes.

Ireland submitted its position paper on the proposal to the European Commission on 5th November 2008. This paper took into account the views of key stakeholders including the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, consumers, industry and health professionals. The paper outlined the Irish position on key issues. With regard to the nutrition labelling section of the proposal, Ireland

supported the use of "per portion" expression alone in certain cases;

did not support the proposal for a minimum font size of 3mm for display of mandatory particulars; and

supported the inclusion of trans fats, fibre, folic acid, calcium, iron and vitamin D in the mandatory nutrition declaration.

A European Union Working Group on Foodstuffs has held a number of meetings since March 2008, to discuss the proposal. Irish representatives will continue to attend meetings of this Group to ensure that Ireland's position on this proposal is taken into account.

While no formal timeframe has been set for this work, it is expected that the formulation of a Regulation will not be finalised during 2008.