The Council approved a compromise text aimed at ensuring that food labels carry essential information in a clear and legible way. Thus, the new draft regulation requires labelling to be clear and legible. Its main objective of the new regulation is to enable consumers to make balanced and healthier dietary choices.

The new food labelling rules approved by the Council has as main objective to enable consumers to make balanced and healthier dietary choices. In order to achieve this, prepacked food must in future be labelled with the energy value and the quantities of fat, saturates,  carbohydrates, protein, sugars and salt. The compromise text on the new draft regulation follows a second-reading agreement with the European Parliament. The regulation will enter into force 20 days after their publication in the Official Journal of the EU which is expected for the end of November.

The draft regulation requires labelling to be clear and legible. In order to improve legibility the new regulation establishes a minimum font size for the mandatory information. The new piece of legislation strengthens the prohibition of misleading information (for example suggesting the presence of a particular ingredient, while in reality an ingredient normally used has been substituted) and requires information to be accurate, clear, and easy to understand for the consumer. Moreover, it extends the compulsory country of origin labelling to fresh meat of pork, lamb and poultry. The Commission must examine within two years after the entry into force of the new regulation the possible extension of the compulsory labelling of the country of origin to meat used as an ingredient.

The new rules extends to the labelling on prepacked food. Now allergens must be included in the list of ingredients and emphasised through a typeset that clearly distinguishes them from the rest of the list of ingredients. Foods sold by private persons, for example at charity events or local community fairs, fall outside the scope of the new regulation. Non-prepacked food would also be exempted from nutrition labelling, unless Member States decide otherwise at national level. Allergens, however, must always be indicated.