EU Reporter

The fallout from this week’s Name and Praise campaign – a corporate event organised by DG SANCO and held in the press briefing room of the European Commission – is continuing, as food industry representatives and elected officials alike continue to express their opposition to the whole affair.

Unilever, beverage association UNESDA, Kraft foods and McDonald’s Europe were all held up by Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyrianou as examples of those following good corporate governance.
The Name and Praise campaign is supposed to encourage European food and drink manufacturers to implement initiatives to combat obesity and other health problems.
However, representatives of organisations not singled out by Kyprianou felt aggrieved that they had been left out, arguing that there was an implication that they were somehow “not serious” about the health of European citizens. Philippe Binard, General-Delegate of Freshfel Europe, the European Association of Fruit and Vegetables said:
"We think it is very important to tackle growing obesity in Europe and in that sense we have engaged ourselves in promoting the consumption of Fruit and Vegetables, particularly among the young, as the best way to curb obesity. The Commission’s Name and Praise campaign instead gave privalege to big companies, and excluded the Fruit and Vegetables sector, despite our strong commitments to tackle the problem".
"We consider that the Name and Shame stance sharply contrasted with the findings of Eurobarometer on Health and Food, which is produced by the European Commission services themselves,and published that same say. According to that survey, most Europeans believe that healthy eating means two things: eating a balanced and varied diet and eating more fruit and vegetables. 58 percent of citizens in Europe find indeed that eating a healthy diet involves above all “eating more fruit and vegetables”, while some 45 percent of respondents think that eating too much fat food is incompatible with healthy eating. We believe that citizens’ perception of the problem is right, but the Commissioner approach seemed to ignore them by praising the junk food industry.
In response to a presentation by McDonald’s Europe, who are putting nutritional information on packaging in their restaurants in Scotland and Spain, MEP Catherine Stihler has said she will write to the Commissioner to complain about how this event has been handled.

Photo: courtesy of www.phg.ro