Food manufacturers should be obliged to display the calorie count of food and drink products on the front of packs, a European Parliament committee agreed today.

Other nutrition information – fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar, salt, proteins, fibre and artificial transfats – should also appear on the front of packs, but the MEPs rejected plans for colour-coded ‘traffic light’ warnings aimed at telling consumers to eat more ‘green’ healthy foods and go easy on ‘red’ foods that are high in sugar, salt or fat.

Today’s vote by the Parliament’s committee on environment, public health and food safety was a critical staging post on the way to a new EU regulation on food labelling, a law that the European Commission has billed as reducing red tape on manufacturers and making it easier for time-pressed consumers to make healthy choices.

Renate Sommer, the German centre-right MEP who is guiding the law through the Parliament, had argued that calorie count (per 100 grammes) should be on the front of food packs, but not – as the Commission had proposed – sugar, salt, fat, saturated fat and carbohydrates. Her report was overwhelmingly adopted by the committee, with 52 votes in favour, two against and five abstentions.

But a specific vote on ‘traffic light’ labels proved more divisive, with mandatory red, green and amber labels rejected by 32 to 30 votes.

Sommer said the committee was right to reject the ‘traffic-light’ scheme. “Colour symbols have no scientific background. Sugar-free coke, for example, would get the ‘green light’ as it has no sugar. Natural apple juice, however, would get the ‘red light’ as it contains glucose. A nutrition facts box, however, conveys all necessary information for the consumer.”

The European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC), which champions traffic-light labels, described the outcome as “hugely disappointing”. Monique Goyens, BEUC’s director-general, said: “We fear that the fight against childhood obesity, in particular, has taken a serious blow today. Parents more than anyone are the people who don’t have the time to check detailed and complex information currently found on many food products. All we ask is that we have a clear, transparent system in place where all shoppers can make at-a-glance comparisons between foods.”

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The committee also voted against regulating the font size of nutritional information. The Commission wanted all labelling to be at least three millimetres tall, a provision that Sommer dismissed as “bureaucratic lunacy”. The MEPs accepted her proposal that the Commission should draft guidance on how to make labels legible.

MEPs voted for all foods (including processed foods) to be labelled with their country of origin, which has raised concerns among the food and drink industry.

A spokeswoman for the Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (CIAA) of the EU said they felt “cautiously optimistic” and were pleased that MEPs had rejected the “unworkable” font-size regulation.

But she said that the food industry remains concerned that the draft law could “overload” consumers with information. “On an initial reading of today’s vote, it appears that we would have an overload of information leading to total confusion for consumers and, consequently, this would add severe burdens for manufacturers. More clarity on this issue will be required in the plenary vote.”

Today’s vote clears the way for the Parliament to begin negotiations with the Council of Ministers. The final outcome is expected in May when the full Parliament is scheduled to vote on the law.