Vote set to favour food-label exemptions
Legislators accused of selling out public health
A compromise food-labelling law is likely to be passed at today's Legislative Council meeting, with only 23 of the 60 lawmakers saying they will vote against plans to extend exemptions to some 'health' products.
But advocates of detailed food labelling pledged a long battle against the regulation, saying they would place advertisements and distribute leaflets at schools and clinics condemning legislators who sold out public health in favour of prepackaged food merchants.
On the eve of the vote, the Taskforce on Food Nutrient Labelling said 23 lawmakers had agreed during last-minute lobbying to vote against the government's amended proposal.
The Hong Kong Retail Management Association says it has secured nearly 450,000 signatures from consumers supporting the proposal.
Taskforce convenor Wong Po-choi said some legislators had yet to declare their views but, no matter what the outcome, the taskforce would condemn legislators who betrayed the public's interests.
'[Retailers] thought that the original proposal was strict and argued that less choice of food would be available, but in fact more health food products have been available in the market and no other countries, including the United States, have such an exemption,' Mr Wong said.
Initially the government proposed that all prepackaged food would have to have labels detailing nutrition levels. But it later exempted products selling less than 30,000 units a year that did not carry any nutritional claims. The government then further extended the exemption to low-volume products carrying health claims after retailers claimed that 15,000 product lines would vanish from the market if 'health' food was not exempted.
Mr Wong said parents, doctors and nutritionists were very concerned because without detailed nutrition labelling, health claims could be misleading.
'For example, there is no such thing as zero trans-fat because zero, in fact, means zero to 0.49. If a person eats more than a certain amount without paying attention, they can easily consume too much trans-fat,' he said. 'In the long run, it is the society that has to bear the cost of treating patients suffering from poor diets.'
Mr Wong said the taskforce would continue to educate the public on how to read food labelling, with support from parent-teacher and medical associations.
'We will also continue to condemn those legislators by placing advertisements and distributing leaflets at schools and clinics,' he said. 'Whenever we attend conferences, we will continue to mention how these legislators have betrayed us and the health of future generations.'
The Liberal Party and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong have declared their support for the government's latest proposal.
