New labelling regulations for food such as chocolate, fruit juices, jams, sugar and honey have been introduced to make it easier for consumers to know what the products contain.
Announcing the new regulations, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, said they would give consumers clearer information, and allow food produced in accordance with these requirements to move freely within the EU.
Citing examples of the regulations, which give effect to EU directives, the Minister said a product might, for instance, only be called "jam" if it complied with the rules on ingredients and manufacture.
These included the setting out of minimum sugar and fruit content.
Chocolate manufactured after August 12th, 2003, must show the complete list of ingredients, and if non-cocoa butter vegetable fat was used in the product this must be declared separately on the label.
The Minister said for fruit juices, jams, sugar and honey the new rules would be compulsory from July 2004. He pointed out that the regulations required that fruit juice which had been derived from concentrate must be sold under the name "Fruit Juice from Concentrate".
The term "fruit juice" would be reserved for the freshly-squeezed product.