Retailers throughout Europe need to throw their weight behind the 5 A DAY campaign, said Gunter Schweinsberg, chairman of the Fruit Logistica advisory board.
But, he said, there needed to be some caution, as some moves to promote the health message, particularly in the UK, are taking things too far
“The big players in retail, not all of them, but the really big players have said its not my problem [when it comes to promoting the health message] we don’t need to worry about these issues.
“It would be a lot easier to convey the message if the retailers were a bit more open in discussing these issues and implementing the schemes.”
However, he recognised the fact retailers were reluctant to go down a path which could see them dividing their ranges into products that were good for consumers, and products that were bad.
He said recent moves in the UK to assess the healthiness of products, the proposed traffic light system, were not in the retailers interest.
“It is proposed that food items should be subject to special labelling. I think they’re going too far. People are worried that other products will be painted blacker than they actually are.”
While he thought the claims were absurd, he said it was a clear indication of how seriously the subject was being taken
Meanwhile, Fruit Logistica continues to go from strength to strength claimed Christian Goke, chief operating officer of organisers Messe Berlin.
“We’ve seen record figures for this year, 20 per cent up on last year on the number of exhibitors and participating countries, while the space for the show is 30 per cent larger. All this growth has been organic.”
He said this year’s show, the 13th annual Fruit Logistica, had also attracted a number of new countries, including Albania, Bangladesh, Canada and the Czech Republic to name a few.
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