Senate Adopts Food Content Dot Bill

05.16.2011 By Ioana Tudor

The Romanian Senate on Monday adopted with 54 to 42 votes and three abstentions a bill whereby food products will have a colored dot on their packaging to signal their healthy or harmful content.

According to the bill, drafted by democrat liberal lawmaker Florian Staicu, a green dot will be applied to healthy food products that can be consumed daily, an orange dot will be applied to products that must be consumed in moderation and a red dot will be an indicator of substances and food additives that can have negative health effects.

The Health Ministry will set the criteria based upon which food products will be applied the respective dots. The main criteria are the type and the amount of additives food products contain.

The Chamber of Deputies has the final say on this bill.