International translation expert and director of the Association of Language companies, Richard Brooks, has expressed concern that major food retailers are ill-prepared for the new EU Food Information Regulation (FIR). His main worry is not the time pressure, but the precision of the labelling.
Brooks explains, “There will be no margin for translation errors within the new legislation as the mandatory labeling obligations for allergens, sugar, fat content, saturates, energy, carbohydrate, salt etc could all have health implications if not 100% accurate.”
FIR comes in to force at the end of December this year, abolishing confusing and inconsistent labels and food retailers will be required to adopt a unified system that makes it simple for the consumer to read exactly what is in packaged foods.
The biggest challenge for retailers and food companies will be to ensure that all of their supplier and packaging company’s labels are compliant with the FIR in every language and each EU country in which their products are sold.
Brooks says, “In an industry where we translate information for over a thousand products a week I can attest that translating food packaging isn’t easy. There are those within the food industry who continue to make errors on foreign language packs, a problem perpetuated by polluted translation memories, unprofessional translators and using technology like Google Translate without a post-editing process.”
© 2014 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson
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