Beware what you eat

NATIONAL Food Day and the opportunity to inform people on the serious matter of nutritional safety passed virtually unnoticed by the Ministry of Health, the Green Party accused yesterday.

Charalambos Theopemptou, Executive Secretary of the movement, expressed his disappointment on the matter, adding that due to the seriousness of the issue the Party had decided to inform the public and ask for the Ministry’s support.

According to Theopemptou, although there has been considerable progress on food labelling in Cyprus, there are still issues that need to be addressed.

The party said there still appeared to be confusion among consumers on the exact meanings of certain symbols and terms. In the worst case, this can prove fatal due to allergies and illnesses.

The enforcement of relevant legislation needs to be monitored more closely, says Theopemptou and companies that are in breach should be named and shamed.

“The names of the illegal companies aren’t published due to various excuses. For example there was no announcement of the products that contained Genetically Modified Organisms and had no relevant stamp. The Ministry of Health invoked the protection of personal standards!”
The public’s understanding of words, such as ‘homemade’, ‘vegetarian’ and ‘village made’ also needed to be researched, he said. “How can companies claim that a product is homemade when it was produced in a little factory in the centre of Nicosia?” asked Theopemptou.

Finally, although there are procedures that consumers can follow in order to complain about the quality of products, there is no official information phone line as far as the subject of labelling is concerned.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.