Consumer pressure appears to have won political support to overturn Danish Consumer Minister Lars Barfoed’s decision to label only healthy foods for shopper information.
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Denmark’s Consumer Council organized an e-mail protest action that some authorities called a spam campaign, but the complaints of hundreds of concerned citizens resulted in The Social Democratic Party (S), The Danish People’s Party (DF), The Socialist People’s Party (SF) and The Socialist People’s Party (SF) joining to provide enough support to block the suggestion.
Consumers want a simple three-color “traffic light” label system modelled on Sweden’s, that would provide instant information on a food’s health rating.
Barfoed’s argued that it was sufficient for the food industry to strive to win the top green label, and that since EU regulations make labelling voluntary, negative labels would simply be rejected by producers and grocery chains.
Food consultant Susanne Kofoed told newspaper Politiken that a negative red label could distract consumer focus from the need to eat a varied diet.
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By GlobalDataMogens Werge, head of Nordic grocery chain Coop, agreed that the industry would hardly volunteer to label their products as unhealthy, but urged that a new labelling system mirror Sweden’s tri-color ‘keyhole’ ranking logos, so that it would be simpler and cheaper to create a regional standard.
