The National Institute for Standardisation and Quality (INNOQ) has announced that 70% of the products available in the country’s supermarkets are already duly labelled in Portuguese, facilitating access to essential information about the goods purchased. This information was publicised by the newspaper Noticias.
“We are working with producers and importers to ensure that by the end of the year the percentage of products labelled in Portuguese reaches 80%. We are making progress,” said Geraldo Albasini, director general of INNOQ.
Geraldo Albasini stressed that this measure aims to ensure that consumers are properly informed about what they are buying, thus promoting greater protection of public health and more effective defence of consumer rights. The statement was made during a meeting to review the activities of the National Inspectorate of Economic Activities over the past year.
In the same context, the director-general of INNOQ encouraged economic agents to submit their labels to INNOQ for correction, so that they fulfil the established requirements. “It’s important to make this contact beforehand, to avoid printing large quantities of labels and then discovering that they have an error that needs to be corrected,” he said.
Recently, INNOQ announced the entry into force of a ban on the import and commercialisation of products not labelled in Portuguese, a measure aimed at defending the interests of consumers. Since the start of this operation, there has been a significant increase in the number of correctly labelled products, representing an important advance in consumer information.
Geraldo Albasini also stressed the importance of labelling being clear and legible, containing all the essential information about the products, such as composition, expiry date and instructions for use, factors which contribute to a better purchasing decision and consumer safety.
“These indicators represent a significant evolution compared to the situation two or three years ago, when less than half of the products in distribution chains were labelled in Portuguese,” he concluded.
According to the source, this evolution in labelling is seen as a crucial step towards protecting consumers and ensuring that they have access to accurate and understandable information about the products they buy, reinforcing confidence in purchases and promoting transparency in the market.
