New EU law on food information to consumers

The new EU regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers changes existing legislation on food labelling in the EU countries. This is due to come into force 13 December 2014. Consequently, one of the variations that Ferrero will begin applying in the EU countries by August 2014, will be to indicate the type of vegetable oil and fat used in its products’ label.

For the production of many Ferrero products, vegetable oils and fats are used. One of these is palm oil, one of the most important vegetable oils worldwide, which is extracted by heating and pressing the pulp of the fruit. Palm oil can be adapted in different quantities to the requirements of each recipe, without resorting to the hydrogenation process. It also contributes to the balance among the other ingredients, enhancing their taste, since it is odorless and tasteless, after the refining process and helps to maintain the product’s taste along its whole shelf life, because of its higher stability to oxidation compared to other vegetable oils.

The Ferrero Group is currently sourcing palm fruit oil from Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Brazil.
Since Ferrero attaches great importance to the traceability of this raw material, the group is an active member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO www.rspo.org) since 2005. The RSPO is a multi-stakeholder association that was set up in 2004, for the development and use of sustainable palm oil.
By the end of 2014, Ferrero products will be produced with 100% RSPO segregated certified palm oil, nearly one year ahead of our original schedule. Segregated means that the palm oil is completely traceable from the original plantations to the production line.

Moreover, Ferrero’s responsibility does not stop at this certification achievement, which is just the first step in meeting our employees’ and consumers’ expectations. We choose to strengthen our commitment to responsibly sourcing palm oil through the Ferrero Palm Oil Charter, in order to buy palm oil from known sources without contributing to deforestation, species extinction, high greenhouse gas emissions or human rights violations. Ferrero has developed a methodology with TFT (formerly The Forest Trust www.tft-forests.org) to evaluate how well the Charter is being implemented by our suppliers and to help growers move beyond RSPO requirements.