Copenhagen, 16th January 2018 - Every two years the major positive logos in Europe meet to exchange news and information. The fourth session took place on 16th January 2018 in UN City, Copenhagen and welcomed WHO Europe as observer . Attended by the president of the Choices International Scientific Committee and representatives from Keyhole Norway, Denmark and Sweden, from the Finnish Heart Logo, the Bulgarian labelling initiative, the Czech Choices program and the Choices International Foundation, the meeting also received information about Keyhole in Iceland and Lithuania, the Dutch Choices program and the Healthy Living program in Croatia.
The different national labelling programs show striking similarities. They all work on reformulation and education next to their positive label to guide consumer choice and they all prefer positive communication. The criteria of the different logos are based on the same principles such as a product group specific approach.
While most of the labelling programs are highly recognized and trusted in their own country, the time has come to be more active in the international debate on simplified nutrition labelling. WHO, Codex Alimentarius and the European Commission all have issued studies and inventories recently to find out which labelling options are present and how effective and science-based they are. Therefore the Round Table decided to bring all available studies on their logo together and to initiate new research, in order to feed this international debate and show the impact and substantiation of positive front-of-pack labelling.
For more information, please contact Bente Stærk (BEST@fvst.dk) or Rutger Schilpzand (rutger.schilpzand@choicesprogramme.org)