Food Labelling: Empowering Consumers to Make Informed Choices

This webcast will bring together decision-makers, consumer organizations, food industry operators, and other stakeholders to debate over food labelling as well as its opportunities and obstacles whilst ensuring that consumers are empowered to make informed food choices. Since 2016, it is mandatory for food business operators to display nutritional information on pre-packed food.  More and more, consumers make health-conscious food choices and opt for more nutritious alternatives; in that perspective, they should be informed about the right dietary information on the food products they buy. However, food labelling does not only include nutritional information but also information that helps reducing food waste and food frauds, allergen labelling, origin information and production details. All this information will ensure that consumers understand the composition of the food and help to prevent allergic reactions, overweight and obesity, diabetes mellitus or certain types of cancer and heart diseases whilst also ensures food safety. With the Farm to Fork Strategy being at the heart of the European Green Deal aiming to make food systems fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly, many food business operators supplemented voluntarily the mandatory nutrition declaration to ensure that consumers are best informed to make a good food choice. However, studies have shown, that not everyone understands the abundance of information on food products, and many have difficulties interpreting nutrition facts.