London, June 27 (IANS) Shopkeepers in the European Union (EU) will be banned from selling eggs or fruit by the dozen under new food labelling regulations proposed by the European parliament, a media report said.
Under the draft legislation, meant to come into force next year, sale of food items in the EU using the simple measurement of numbers will be replaced by a system based on weight, the Telegraph reported.
The legislation, if approved, would mean an end to packaging eggs or fruit by the dozen, bread rolls in a pack of six or fish fingers in boxes of 12.
The legislation could even see a ban on special promotional packs such as those offering ‘eight chocolate bars for the price of six’, according to a report in trade magazine, the Grocer.
It comes after members of the European parliament voted against an amendment to regulations that would have allowed individual countries to nominate products that could be sold by number.
The report said the proposed change would cost the food industry millons of pounds as items would have to be individually weighed to ensure the accuracy of the label on it.
Food industry sources described the move as ‘absolute madness’, while the editor of the Grocer magazine, Adam Leyland, said the EU had ‘created a multi-headed monster’.
