Final edition of the GOST for "traffic light" products marking is complete and should be accepted in October. It is expected that the new GOST will operate in the countries of the Eurasian Standardization Council (Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan).
The Federal Research Centre for Nutrition, Biotechnology and Food Safety (FITC) has already prepared the final version of the document. According to it, the colour mark on the package informs the consumer about the content of sugar, salt and fat in products. Red stripe is the warning that their proportion clearly exceeds the norm.
Manufacturers will voluntarily use the "traffic light", but market participants fear that labelling will become mandatory overtime. This is indirectly confirmed in the FITC statement: they noted that the intergovernmental standard can serve as the basis for setting standards in this area.
“Traffic light" marking was introduced a year ago - on 1st of June 2018. Initially, only ice cream producers took part in the project. Over time, some soft drink companies have joined.
At present, graphic warnings "traffic lights" are not required in the technical regulation TR СU 022/2011 "On food marking“. At the same time, documents of the national standardization system are applied voluntarily.
