87) The last session of the Committee had returned to Step 3 the Proposed Draft Amendment requiring labelling of sugars, fibre, saturated fat and sodium when nutrition labelling was applicable since no consensus could be reached on the text and several amendments had been proposed during the session.
88) The Delegation of Mexico expressed the view that nutrition labelling should be made on a voluntary basis only and proposed to add a new section to this effect while deleting section 3.2.2 on additional nutrient declaration.
89) The Delegation of the United Kingdom proposed that nutrition labelling should be required also when a health claim was made, as this would provide essential information to the consumers in order to make an informed choice. Several delegations and the Observer from Consumers International supported this proposal and the Committee amended the text of section 3.2.2 accordingly. The Delegation of Sweden, speaking on behalf of the EC and referring to its written comments, considered that when claims are made for cholesterol, compulsory accompanying information on saturates is necessary and this should be reflected in section 3.2.4.
90) The Delegation of Argentina proposed to add a declaration of dietary fibre in section 3.2.1.2 and to retain the references to dietary fibre in section 3.2, and to declare saturated, mono - and polyunsaturated fatty acids and cholesterol in section 3.2.4. The Delegation of New Zealand proposed to include a reference to “biologically active substances” in addition to nutrients in section 3.2.1.3 in order to recognize the health significance of some non-nutrients.
91) Several delegations and the Observers from CI and IBFAN proposed to retain current section 3.2.2. (additional nutrient declaration) without square brackets; to delete the last sentence in section 3.2.3 referring to dietary fibre; to include the declaration of trans fatty acids in sections 3.2.2 and 3.2.4.
92) The Observer from WSRO expressed the view that declaration of sugars should not be required in sections 3.2.2 and 3.2.3 as this provision was not substantiated by current scientific evidence and therefore contradicted the first Statement of Principle. The Observer from CIAA supported the current text of the Guidelines, and expressed the view that nutrient content should be declared on a voluntary basis or when a claim was made for a specific nutrient.
93) After an extensive exchange of views, the Committee agreed to retain section 3.2.2, the last sentence of section 3.2.3 and the last sentence of section 3.2.4 in square brackets. The declaration of trans fatty acids was included in sections 3.2.2 and 3.2.4, and the reference to cholesterol was retained without square brackets in section 3.2.4 (declaration of fatty acids).
94) In addition to the discussion on the current text the Committee also noted the general comments of the Delegations of Canada, Denmark, Japan and the United States and the Observer from IACFO supporting mandatory nutrition labelling irrespective of the claims made.
Status of the Proposed Draft Amendment to the Guidelines for Nutrition Labelling
95) The Committee agreed to return the Proposed Draft Amendment, as amended at the current session, to Step 3 for further comments and consideration at the next session (see Appendix VII).
