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Labelling laws: nutrient profiling moving ahead |
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January 2009 |
Members of the Consumer Goods Council of SA's (CGCSA's) Food Law Group met with the Department of Health (DoH) in late 2008 to discuss the next step in developing a suitable nutrient profiling model for SA.
/~A nutrient profiling model was proposed by the food industry as an alternative to the Annexure 6 proposals in the 2007 draft food labelling regulations (the now-scrapped "non-essential food" provision). An alternative needs to be in place before any new labelling regulations can be finalised.
Food technology consultant Nigel Sunley says: "Nutrient profiling is a process whereby the nutritional contents of a food product are scrutinised according to scientific criteria - rather than arbitrary classifications - to determine its overall acceptability. Considerable work is going on in this area globally, and such schemes are already in place in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. But these have had some problems."
"This is why the CGCSA has been monitoring the proposed European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) initiatives, which are due to be published shortly."
Linda Dell, a member of the CGCSA's Food Law Group, says: "At our meeting, Antoinette Booyzen, the DoH's assistant director for regulatory nutrition, agreed to wait for the publication of EFSA's model before moving ahead."
"The DoH has, however, been approached by the Trends group of Northwest University (NWU) to undertake the development of suitable nutrient profiling and front-of-pack systems for SA."
At a recent CGCSA industry affairs meeting to discuss these developments, Sunley said: "The total cost of the proposal is R1.5m - the nutrient profiling component on its own will cost around R750,000. The positives are that the cost is fair for the type of work concerned, NWU has strong scientific credibility, and the Trends team has committed to detailed consultation with the CGCSA and DoH at the commencement of the project, before carrying on working independently until its completion. The negative is that the industry cannot wait two years for the model to be completed."
Industry representatives at the meeting proposed to wait for EFSA to publish its model and to use it - with the necessary modifications - for a SA model. - Nici Solomon
'Nutrient profiling is a process whereby the nutritional contents of a food product are scrutinised according to scientific criteria - rather than arbitrary classifications - to determine its overall acceptability.
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