Press Release: Food without fear: new food labelling rules will improve consumer information on food ingredients, in particular allergens

An important amendment to the EU food labelling Directive was adopted by the Council and European Parliament in September 2003. The amendment will ensure that consumers are informed of the complete contents of foodstuffs subject only to a very limited number of derogations. These derogations will not apply to certain ingredients liable to cause allergies or intolerance which are listed in the Directive, thus enabling consumers with allergies to identify any allergenic ingredients that may be present in a food. The new rules abolish the '25% rule' which currently means that it is not obligatory to label components of compound ingredients that make up less than 25% of the final food product. The new rules will also extend to alcoholic beverages if they contain an ingredient on the allergen list - for example, sulphite in wines.