The European Union parliament has voted against a “traffic light” food labelling scheme for packaged foods and soft drinks.
If passed, food labels would have had red, amber or green colour codes showing the relative amounts of salt, sugar and fat they contain.
A campaign group, The Corporate Europe Observatory, said the food and drink industry had spent over 1 billion euros opposing the traffic light system.
Consumer groups argue that ‘traffic lights’ are easier for shoppers to understand than existing labels.
Read more about the EU Parliament rejecting ‘traffic light’ food labels, Reuters, 16 June 2010