Pretzel salt confusion

A German visiting Brussels asks:
“Why does Brussels want to regulate the amount of salt in German pretzels?”

“My name is Nina Papadoulakis, I am the spokesperson for the European Commissioner for health. The European Commission never said that it will regulate on salt. Of course, it is well known that salt is one of the main causes of heart disease problems in Europe, but again we never said that we will regulate on salt and we never said that we will ban pretzels or any other products of that type as well. What we try to do through the health claims regulation is to avoid misleading information to be transmitted and to be used for the consumer.
Basically, what we are trying to do — and I will use a very easy-to-understand example — is when a product has on its label “rich in fibre” but at the same time it is high in salt, it has to be clearly noted on the label that of course it is rich in fibre but it is high in salt.”

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tags: Health