Leveraging Food Labels

The 5 key movers and shakers in food labeling

The list includes a European commissioner, a chocolatier and a farmer.

Roberto Moncalvo

The 37-year-old Italian is at the helm of Coldiretti, Italy’s leading farmers’ union. With its 500,000 members and 800 offices, Coldiretti carries a political weight that can’t be ignored. Coldiretti influenced Rome’s decision to launch the “Made in Italy” origin campaign for iconic food such as pasta and tomatoes, Moncalvo told POLITICO. The move put Italy at odds with the European Commission and farming powerhouses such as Canada, the U.S. and Brazil. The farmers’ union is now taking aim at so-called traffic light nutrition labels that indicate foods high in sugar and fat in France and the U.K. through a new association, Filiera Italia.

Vytenis Andriukaitis

The EU’s health commissioner is intent on providing consumers with more information about nutritional facts and ingredients in alcohol. Since taking office in 2014, Andriukaitis has repeatedly criticized the alcohol industry for obtaining an exemption to EU food-labeling laws. He has also warned producers that if he isn’t satisfied with their self-regulatory proposal, DG SANTE won’t hesitate to propose its own legislation. The Lithuanian commissioner has to tread carefully, however, as coming down hard on the industry in favor of stricter health policies could upset some of the EU’s most powerful countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Rupert Howes

Howes is the CEO of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a nonprofit group responsible for certifying sustainable seafood through the blue MSC-certified label. Howes has overseen the program’s expansion since 2004, turning MSC into the foremost sustainable fish and seafood label in the world. There are now more than 20,000 MSC-certified fish and seafood products around the world. The organization’s goal is to provide consumers with more information about where their fish come from and support sustainable fisheries to protect the world’s oceans.

Giovanni Ferrero

The 53-year-old is head of the world’s third-largest confectionery company, Ferrero. The organization packs a political punch in Italy. The chocolate giant is widely thought to be behind Italy’s assault on traffic light nutrition labels in the U.K. Rome reportedly pushed the Commission to launch infringement proceedings after being pressured by Ferrero. Its products, such as Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, are in the firing line of food-labeling campaigns that target foods high in sugar, fat and salt. As attitudes towards palm oil shift across Europe — especially in Italy — Ferrero remains a staunch user of the product, going as far as launching a campaign to defend it.

Stéphane Le Foll

France’s former agriculture minister delivered the coup de grâce that allowed EU governments to use origin labels. Farmers long hankered for labels that show the national origins of produce, hoping that patriotic consumers would pick their produce and raise their prices. During the depths of France’s dairy crisis, Le Foll managed to convince the European Commission to allow him the option for milk and meat. The move was a coup for France and a total U-turn for Brussels, which had for years held that origin labels threaten the single market. The effect? A growing number of countries have followed Le Foll’s lead and are now adding similar labels.

This article is part of the special report Leveraging Food Labels.