The rapporteur, Mrs Roth-Behrendt (PSE, DE), welcomed the agreement reached between Parliament and the Council on food. In particular she said that the compromise represented an important step for certain Member States which did not have detailed legislation on food labelling. Commissioner Bangemann fell in between those who felt that this was an important step and those who considered that the text would make absolutely no improvement. However, he pointed out that it would have been unreasonable to impose unlimited labelling as the protection of consumers’ interests did not justify the mandatory labelling of approximately 80-90% of the ingredients used.