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The European Parliament approved by a large majority measures that will oblige honey producers to correctly indicate its composition and origin on the labels of the food product jars, DPA reported.
The new rules must be approved by the countries of the European Union to enter into force.
Currently, producers are only required to indicate on the labels of jars or packages of honey whether the product is of EU or non-EU origin. The new measures will oblige them to indicate the specific country in which the honey was produced. If manufacturers sell a mixture of honey, they will have to indicate the individual countries from which the individual ingredients were sourced. The new rules are also directed against the practices of some producers of mixing “fake” and “real” honey, and then selling it without correctly indicating the ingredients, DPA notes.
The new measures will not apply to packets of honey that are under 30 grams. Furthermore, in January, when they reached a preliminary agreement on the introduction of these rules, EU countries decided that each of them could oblige producers to indicate only the origin of the largest ingredients by volume in honey mixtures.
The decision of the European Parliament also affects fruit products, including fruit juices and marmalades. Their producers will be allowed to write on the labels of bottles or jars that the products in them are “low sugar” only if at least 30 percent of it has been removed. This measure concerns natural sugar, as the addition of artificial sweeteners is not allowed.
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