It was designed to simplify ... but labelling regulation has got stuck

The Food Information Regulation (FIR) designed to simplify and consolidate EU food and nutrition labelling appears to be bogged down, making little progress, a legal expert has claimed.

Owen Warnock, a partner with legal firm Eversheds, told a food seminar last month that the main sticking points were getting agreement on the font sizes for labels; front-of-pack nutrition labelling; and country of origin.

Warnock said the Swedish presidency expected to hand over most of the work on the FIR to Spain, which takes over the presidency of the EU Council in January 2010. He said progress in the European Parliament (EP) was also slow, although a draft report from the rapporteur on the EP's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), Renate Sommer, was expected this month.

"We are getting into a huge complicated mess in Europe," said Warnock. While the latest proposals were for a minimum 1.2mm 'x' font size, lesser requirements for 'small packs' were still controversial. This was because they raised questions, such as what a small pack was.

The debate on front of pack nutrition labelling was being strung out over issues on whether traffic lights should be permitted in addition to guideline daily amounts, said Warnock. He added that fears also remained about the UK "gold plating" EU law.

On the proposed EU Regulation's provision on Member State schemes, he said: "There is nervousness that the Food Standards Agency is trying to get well above the EU minimum."