Várhelyi ducks commitment to food, booze health labels

Health advocates hoping for tough European measures to curb rates of obesity and other chronic diseases may wish to direct their lobbying efforts nationally, after the designated EU health commissioner downplayed food and booze label plans.
Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi was opaque on pushing ahead with front-of-pack labels in written answers to MEPs on how to tackle some of the biggest health challenges of our time — the ever-rising rates of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Europe needs to “reflect on how to change the narrative” on risk factors for these chronic diseases, including alcohol and the economic determinants of health, Várhelyi said in his 16-page reply to lawmakers’ questions.
“Social attitudes can be a key driver for change,” the choice for health and animal welfare commissioner said in response to questions on how he will tackle this growing and health-budget crippling problem.
While he’s not wrong — and he acknowledged that mandatory food information “can help consumers to make healthier consumer choices” — he nonetheless favors a “comprehensive approach,” to achieve this. That’s EU speak for non-legislative measures.
That would include addressing “food information, food reformulation and the marketing of unhealthy food,” he said.
The Hungarian also supports “national efforts to improve awareness around food information.”
That’s in line with his mission from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has tasked him with designing “common approaches” to tackling several chronic conditions, including heart disease.
But it could signal a line in the sand over stalled European Commission proposals to introduce front-of-pack health labels for all foods in Europe, as well as for alcoholic drinks.
While he says that “work should continue on food labeling,” it’s unclear whether he’s referring to national or European efforts, and he wants “particular attention on minimizing any related burdens (for industry) … finding balanced, pragmatic solutions which facilitate the functioning of the internal market.”
And on a question whether he would commit to delivering promised booze health labels, Várhelyi dodged it entirely.
To many health NGOs, as well as lawmakers, dropping mandatory labels would be a blow. Progress on EU-wide preventative measures — including food and booze labels — is critical to tackle these growing disease rates, and “should be a key focus for the next mandate,” the Socialists and Democrats argued earlier this month.
“The functioning of the internal market should not be used as an excuse not to take action on food and alcohol labelling,” Caroline Costongs, director of EuroHealthNet, a partnership for improving health and social equity, said.
She called for “a bold commitment to an EU-wide standardization of food labelling such as Nutri-Score, which is a proven effective and an essential step forward to tackle obesity and NCDs,” and added that consumers also “have a right to know what is in an alcoholic drink.”
Under current EU rules, countries do not have to provide front-of-pack nutritional information. But a proposal for a mandatory EU-wide nutrition label was first introduced in 2020 by the European Commission as part of its Farm to Fork Strategy.
The aim was to clearly identify the nutritional value of food products and to empower consumers to make more informed and healthy choices.
But after concluding impact assessments and consultations, work stalled and went MIA in 2022, before resurfacing momentarily for more “robust evidence and data” gathering on the impact of labels on consumer choices in 2023.
Food labels could resemble the five color-coded Nutri-Score, first introduced in France and which is now operating in Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Portugal.
But it was strongly opposed by food lobbies, especially in Italy, over fears that cheese, ham and olive oil could score badly.
Similarly, in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan published in 2021, the Commission committed to introduce mandatory ingredients and nutrition labels for alcoholic drinks by 2023. The argument being that if people knew they were consuming around 1 gram of sugar per glass of wine, they might not drink so much.
However, this proposal has also stalled. It came under heavy fire from industry lobbies at the time, especially in Italy and France, and has since disappeared altogether.
Meanwhile, Ireland has pushed ahead with its own mandatory booze health label, much to the ire of industry lobbies.
With no direct mention of the Farm to Fork Strategy or EU-wide mandatory food and alcohol labels in either Várhelyi’s mission letter or written answers to MEPs — nor food and agriculture commissioner-designate Christophe Hansen’s — it’s a topic that some MEPs may wish to push him on when they grill him on Nov. 6.
This article has been updated with reaction.