The Foodservice Packaging Association (FPA) says the EU’s own evidence reveals three quarters of products carry some form of green claim and half of these claims are misleading.

The Directive had set out the criteria companies must meet when making environmental based claims.

This included banning claims such as ‘carbon-neutral’ and ‘net-zero’ where a business is using carbon offsetting to achieve them. The background to the bans being major concerns about carbon credit markets.

Similarly, the Directive required vague claims such as ‘bio’ and ‘eco’ to include specific information, backed up with genuine data and full information, including how the data was gathered.

The push back has come from the EU’s largest political party, the centre-right EPP Group, which is proposing the Directive is either fundamentally changed or withdrawn altogether. The group claims it risks “unduly hindering sustainability communication through procedures that are overly complex, administratively burdensome, and costly”.

Martin Kersh, executive doctor, FPA, said: “Scrapping the Directive will take place against a background of EC proposals designed to reduce administrative and reporting burdens on businesses, which may also result in a major reduction in the reporting requirements for businesses under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.

“Many UK businesses set their standards to meet those in the EU, so the FPA views this possible move by the EC as a setback in our mission to rid packaging of misleading claims of any sort. Protecting the trade and consumers from false claims helps to create a level playing field for all market players, and up till now it felt as if Europe and the UK were moving in the same direction. It also makes you wonder what a more populist right-leaning government in the UK would make of the packaging reforms – including EPR.”