NUTRITION LABELS TO BE MANDATORY
Fat, saturated fat, sugars, salt content and information on calories will be displayed on packaged food sold in the UAE. |
Here’s some good news for those who want to make healthy food choices, but can’t decipher the nutritional value of prepackaged food items.
The UAE Cabinet has approved a Nutrition Labelling Policy under which food items will have colour-coded labels on their front packaging. Based on individual colours (red, amber and green) people will be able easily identify which food product is high or low in fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt content, and make informed choices accordingly.
The labels will also carry the calorie count of each food product. “The Nutrition Labelling Policy aims to raise community awareness and nudge people into adopting a healthy lifestyle, which will eventually promote health and overall wellbeing in the UAE,” the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mandatory by 2022
According to the ministry, the policy will become mandatory in January 2022. It will cover canned, solid and liquid foods, but exclude fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables, meat and fish.
The policy was developed by the National Programme for Happiness and Wellbeing in cooperation with the Food Security Office. However it will be implemented by the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (Esma).
Ohood Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Happiness and Wellbeing and DirectorGeneral of the Prime Minister’s Office, said the policy reflects the government’s keenness to promote healthy lifestyles in the community by encouraging healthy eating habits.
How the idea originated
Al Roumi said the policy stemmed from the Community Design for Wellbeing Initiative in which obstacles preventing people from adopting a healthy lifestyle were widely discussed. “One of those barriers was lack
of clear nutritional information on food labels, so we conducted a field survey to identify the best tools for addressing this challenge,” she said.
Mariam Al Muhairi, Minister of State for Food Security, said the policy would help consumers get nutritional data on food products in an easy manner. “It is aligned with the World Health Organisation guidelines and complies with global best practices and relevant standard specifications,” she said, adding that the initiative would
reduce consumption of unhealthy food by 30 per cent.
Abdullah Al Maeeni, DirectorGeneral of Esma, said the policy will enhance public health and boost the competitiveness of locally-produced foods.
The policy also considered the results of a field survey conducted in cooperation with leading cooperatives and supermarkets. The survey showed that 72.5 per cent of respondents prefer using colour-coded labels to help them understand nutritional value of products.