EU Parliament waters down draft anti-obesity rules

Food high in salt, sugar and fat could still carry a healthy tag after the European Parliament voted on Thursday to water down key European Union draft rules to fight Obesity.

Consumer organisations criticised the vote while EU lawmakers blamed the decision on heavy lobbying by food firms opposed to tougher labelling requirements.

"There's been quite a strong fight between two positions - those who wanted to protect the big (food) industry and those who wanted to protect consumers (from) being misled by false information," Italian far-right EU lawmaker Adriana Poli Bortone told a news conference.

The European Commission wants to tackle the rising Obesity rate in Europe, where the number of overweight children is rising by 400,000 a year according to its own figures.

It wants to ban misleading health and nutritional claims on food. Under the Commission's draft proposal, all claims would have to be scientifically proven.

Food firms would also be barred from labelling food as healthy if it had high fat, sugar and salt levels.

But the parliament voted by 303 to 286 with 10 abstentions to dump this provision in the draft bill.

Belgian Liberal EU deputy Frederique Ries said German, Italian and British EU lawmakers voted to water down the draft.

European consumers' organisation BEUC condemned the vote.

"The new European Parliament has failed its first big consumer test," said BEUC director Jim Murray in a statement.

"We will continue to fight to make sure that parents across the EU are no longer misled by health claims made on foods too high in fat, sugar or salt," he said.

The Parliament and EU governments must endorse the legislation for it to apply. EU competitiveness ministers will discuss the draft next month.

A majority of EU states are opposed to parliament's position, said Ries, adding that the battle was not over.

So far, Europe has avoided United States-style obesity lawsuits against fast-food chains like McDonalds but is seeking to give consumers more information about what they eat.