This time the Italians have won their battle in the UK.
A battle not just because it calls to the honor of the market and the symbols of diet food Made in Italy penalized by misleading labeling system deiprodotti recently adopted across the Channel.
A system called “traffic light” with stickers red, yellow or green, are to indicate the amount of nutrients present in the food critics and deemed illegal by the European Union.
The aim of this kind of labeling is to decrease consumption among British citizens in fat, sugar and salt.
But the message and the content of the information have proved misleading.
The application of the stickers is not based on the amount actually consumed, but only on the generic presence of a certain type of substance in foods; in doing so, ends up paradoxically excluded from the diet foods such as olive oil or Parmesan cheese and stimulate, on the contrary, the carbonated beverages with low sugar content.
For example, taken as reference 100 grams of product, a red light indicates the presence of fat than 17.5 grams, 17.5 grams between the yellow and the green and 3 grams to 3 grams.
But blatantly ignores the quantities that are actually consumed during a meal.
Therefore, the consumer is induced to drink without problems maybe two liters of soda and give away a teaspoon of parmesan on pasta or a tablespoon of olive oil on the salad.
From the commercial point of view, all this has made it much more difficult for the English market of Italian excellence such as Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheese, extra virgin olive oil, salami such as ham from Zibello, ham Parma, San Daniele or Felino salami.
This choice, which detects Coldiretti, has actually caused damage to some key sectors of exports made in Italy that do not fall within the parameters established.
And, in general, affects the whole trend of consumption in the United Kingdom of Italian food, which in 2013 showed a rise
6%, for a total value of 2.8 billion.
But, in these days, the European Union launched an infringement procedure with the hypothesis of a breach of the principle of free movement of goods against this method because it does not take into account all the elements necessary to assess the actual impact on health.
And now the light is turned off.
From: Sale & Pepe
Alessandro Gnocchi
October 3, 2014