Draft revision of Israel Nutritional Labelling Regulations to be renamed "Protection of Public Health Regulations (Food) (Nutritional Labelling)" announced by Israel Ministry of Health and significantly revised. These revised regulations aim to increase information accessibility relating to the food's nutritional values and to provide it both comprehensibly and graphically.

Israel's Ministry of Health (MOH), as in many other developed countries, has decided to promote an active and healthier life at the national level. As part of this challenge, MOH has established the "Regulation Committee Promoting Healthy Nutrition" wherein, following their recommendations, these regulations were formulated. The major goal was to simplify the nutritional labelling and place it in the Front of Pack (FOP), and eventually assist in prevention of sickness at the national level. The committee's major recommendations were to mandatorily require a FOP Red Label for specific nutritional ingredients that exceed certain levels, such as: saturated fat, sodium and sugar. These requirements were adopted from Chilean regulations and will enter into force gradually, in three steps, between 1 January 2018 and 30 November 2020, with respect to each ingredient. In addition, a labelling requirement for a FOP Green Label for foods specified according to nutritional profiling should also enter into force at the same time, but it is subject to the deliberations of a new professional committee that will be established shortly.

This draft regulation revision will make the sugar labelling requirement mandatory and will apply it to all type of sugars, included added sugars. This requirement is based on the European legislation and therefore required adding new definitions for carbohydrates, sugars, sugar alcohols, starch and dietary fiber (including a conversion ratio method) .

The major changes introduced in this draft revision are as follows:

1.  Changes the order of the ingredients in the nutritional labelling table placed at the back of the pack, as designed in many other countries: calories; fats (saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol), sodium, carbohydrates (sugars, sugar alcohols, starch and dietary fiber), proteins, vitamins and minerals. (Regulations 4 and 13);

2.  Sets the minimal amount of sugars in the nutritional labelling table to be 2 grams in 100 grams or in 100 ml of food. (Regulation 4.(a) .6);

3.  Sets the minimal levels of sodium, sugars and saturated fat above which, it is required to note in a FOP red label both for solid and liquid foods. These requirements will enter into force gradually, in three steps, between 1 January 2018 and 30 November 2020, respective to the ingredient. From 1 December 2020 all pre-packaged foods, imported or locally manufactured, are to be labelled as required in the third step (Regulations 4, 5, 11 and 19);

4.  Provides specific instructions relating to the red and green symbols (Annexes 2 and 6);

5.  Exempts specific foodstuff and food packages from these labelling requirements (Regulations 3.(b) ., 3.(c) . and 8) .