Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

The aim of revision of the ‘breakfast directives’ is to address the challenges of sustainable food systems in line with the EU Green Deal and the ‘Farm to Fork’ Strategy, taking into account the link between "healthy people, healthy societies and a healthy planet". The revision envisages the harmonisation of marketing standards to facilitate the uptake and supply of sustainable products and seeks ways to contribute to healthy diets as well as more transparency on the composition and origin of food products.

The Rapporteur welcomes the Commission proposal as an ambitious and balanced starting point for the legislative process. The Rapporteur especially appreciates the intention to harmonise and align marketing standards, to respond to consumer demand for transparent information about food ingredients, composition and origin of products and to update the legal framework in view of technological advancements.

Recently published EU reports on fraudulent practices linked to imported honey and high demand for more transparent and accurate information by consumers and stakeholders regarding the origin and composition of the honey call for determined action.

In this regard, the Rapporteur proposes a more ambitious approach regarding the labelling of honey, while taking into account practical needs of producers and packers of honey and other industries. Concretely, the Rapporteur proposes that the countries of origin should be mentioned in descending order, indicating their respective share in percentage of the weight on the packaging. For reduced size of the packs containing only a single portion of honey (breakfast packs) and the resulting technical difficulties, a simplified percentage range and the use of the internationally harmonised two-digit ISO country codes should be applicable.

The Rapporteur supports the intention of the Commission proposal to stimulate the production of jams with an increased level of fruit content and support the fruit market while taking into account the need to reduce free sugar content. However, for reasons of quality, and to prevent negative effects on preservability and food waste and consequently higher costs, the Rapporteur suggests slightly lower minimum quantities of fruit to be used in the manufacture of jams and jellies laid down in Annex I to Directive 2001/113/EC than proposed by the Commission.

For sugar-reduced juices, the report supports the aim to harmonise the internal market, enabling product reformulation and innovative processes to reduce sugar by creating a dedicated category of products for sugar-reduced fruit juices. To maintain highest quality standards and transparency for consumers, the Rapporteur suggests avoiding potentially confusing or misleading information, such as claims and comparisons with natural fruit juices suggesting that products with reduced natural sugar would be healthier. In this regard, the Rapporteur suggests avoiding advertising sugar-reduced juices as products that have higher health benefits than the regular juices containing only natural sugar.

To accelerate harmonisation of market rules and improvements of transparency for consumers and since the adjustments are considered to be manageable in scope and complexity the Rapporteur proposes a more ambitious timeline and to speed up the process of implementation.