Eighty Nestlé products to lose Swiss cross
Legislation that tightens rules over the use of the “Made in Switzerland” label is forcing Swiss foodmaker Nestlé to drop the Swiss cross from 80 products, a top Nestlé Suisse manager has revealed.
On January 1, 2017, legislation comes into effect in Switzerland that clearly spells out the conditions under which businesses can claim their products as being Swiss made.
Agricultural produce of plant and animal origin (including milk and milk products) need to be 100% domestic in order to use the Swiss label, while for food products 80% of the raw material must be sourced within Switzerland.
Christophe Cornu, director general of Nestlé Suisse, told Schweiz am Sonntag that the food giant had analysed 650 Nestlé recipes.
“Most of them comply with the Swissness regulations. For others we have adapted the recipe. But this was not possible for 80 recipes, such as Thomy products [mayonnaise] and Leisi [cake recipes] and ice creams by Frisco. They are losing the Swiss cross label. This is very unfortunate, as the products are manufactured using the same recipe in the same place,” he explained.
For Thomy products the food manufacturer only uses free range eggs and needs 34 million eggs a year.
“This quantity cannot be covered by Switzerland alone,” said Cornu in an interview published on Sunday.
The manager defended continuing to manufacture products like Thomy mayonnaise and Leisi cake dough in more expensive Nestlé factories in Basel and Wangen in Switzerland.
“I am confident that customers are loyal to Leisi and Thomy,” he told the paper.
The Economics Ministry has exempted 71 raw materials from the impending ‘Swiss Made‘ regulations because they are in such short supply in Switzerland.
On Monday, the ministry released a list of 58 raw materials, including 41 that are not easily obtainable in the alpine state and 16 that are simply unavailable. These include wine for ready made fondue, honey for industrial food processing and specialized whey and wheat products.
Swiss industries had asked for 81 products to be exempt from the new regualtions, which come into force on January 1.
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