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A massive lobby by the food industry has defeated proposals by parliamentarians to require the use of "traffic light labels" on many processed foods, but manufacturers failed in their attempts to block more honest labelling about where products are produced. Food manufacturers must now accept the need to be more upfront and honest about the way they label their packages. In an important victory for consumers, the parliament backed rules to prevent products largely produced with imported ingredients from being misleadingly labelled as British - a move that will be welcomed by the National Farmers Unions and consumer groups. At present the processing of a food in the UK can allow companies to label it as British, even though the meat could have come from an animal that was reared and slaughtered abroad.
 The failure to push through the traffic light scheme was, however, disappointing and it is still necessary to get EU governments to agree to these provisions - food manufacturers are already pushing hard for them to weaken the parliament's plans.
"If we're serious about tackling heart disease and obesity, we have to help people understand how much salt, fat and sugar is in their food. That's particularly true for products like ready meals and prepacked sandwiches where the label is the only way of knowing how healthy something is."
Labour MEPs will continue to campaign to give shoppers the right to know exactly what is in their food.
Left: David supporting the "traffic light" labelling system. | 
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Scottish pupils visit Parliament
