Brussels has labelled a proposal by the Portuguese government to limit the salt-content in bread – devoured in Portugal with almost religious devotion – as “protectionist and restrictive”.
The idea – backed by health-focused data – and sent to the European Commission in March has thus been thrown out.
Say reports today, the Lisbon executive has tried to show that salt represents “one of the greatest risks to public health, and is related to the development of a series of chronic diseases that are currently the principal cause of death in Portugal”.
But Brussels’ mandarins were unmoved – retorting that the reduction of diseases caused by the excessive consumption of salt “could be achieved through other measures”.
A source for the Commission has told reporters that the Portuguese proposal “goes against the rules of the single European market and free circulation of goods” quite apart from being “seen as protectionist”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
