Health Ministry says imported food may lose nutritional warnings in attempt to smooth supply

To ensure the smooth supply of food to Israel, the Health Ministry is temporarily doing away with the “red labeling” of imported food products and the Hebrew labeling of imported bottled mineral and spring water during the war.

In an announcement, the ministry says that the public should not be concerned about seeing a local product on store shelves with red labels indicating high sugar, fat, or salt content next to a similar imported product without those labels.

While still maintaining food safety standards, authorities are temporarily doing away with the requirement for these labels to avoid holding up the process by which food reaches the Israeli consumer.

Nutritional content tables will still appear on all products, and consumers are advised to continue their efforts to reduce intake of excess sugar, fat and salt.

Similarly, imported bottled water that used to be labeled in Hebrew and English may only be labeled in English. The public should rest assured that the former and latter are indeed the same product.

The Health Ministry reminds the public to boil all water — including bottled mineral or spring water — when preparing formula for babies and toddlers.