MPs are set to pass a law requiring Bermudian-made food to display ingredients and a sell-by dates this summer, spelling an end to stale and possibly dangerous food being sold to unsuspecting shoppers.

The Public Health Amendment (No. 2) Act 2002, tabled in the House of Assembly recently, will require local food sellers to label products to allow consumers to know exactly what they are buying.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome said perishable goods will have to have a sell-by date while non-perishable goods will need a manufacturing date.

He told The Royal Gazette: "I think it's high time Bermuda stepped in to the 21st Century."

Chief Environmental Health Officer Estlyn Harvey said lack of protection was a health hazard to those who had potentially lethal food allergies.

Nut allergies are a potential killer and she said some people had ended up in hospital after suffering nervous reactions to monosodium glutamate.

"You might get an allergic reaction to certain ingredients if you don't know they are there."

Currently there is a voluntary code advising the listing of ingredients and sell-by dates but she said only about 25 percent of local manufacturers went by the code. The new law will make the voluntary code mandatory.

Of locally produced goods, she said baked products rarely gave details of what was inside but they could easily have ingredients such as wheat, nuts and corn which sparked allergic reactions.

"Sometimes it just says what it is and you have to guess what's inside."

She sited small bakeries as a problem but said main bakeries were complying with the code.

A wander around Hamilton's stores showed the need for the new law. MarketPlace's bakery had a huge selection of goods from baked Napoleon to cookies but not one of the items labelled its ingredients, while the Esso City Tiger Mart had a host of items without expiry dates. They included items from the King Nut Company, Just Cookies, popcorn, and frozen treats. Many of their foods such as their packaged honey buns, didn't have a label, and their baked goods - besides Just Cookies - did not have ingredients listed. Esso City Tiger Mart manager Raymond Tannock supported the proposed new law and said customers would find it useful.

Shadow Health spokesman Michael Dunkley also supported food labelling regulations and said it would give people information to take more care with diet and nutrition. "People need to know what's in food, especially if they have an illness." He said his dairy put on sell-by dates and nutrition information on their imported egg boxes. But he said when supermarkets threw out broken eggs the good ones could get separated from their original boxes and store managers needed to re-label the new boxes. Mr. Dunkley said businesses needed to be aware that food labelling wasn't a simple matter.

He said his firm had to send away to the States to get testing done which costs $500 to $1,000 per product.

He added: "You can't just send away and get results back tomorrow. If this gets passed people need time to adapt to it."

The added costs could put a big strain on small sandwich making businesses, said Mr. Dunkley, and he urged Government to give people time to adapt to the change or else small businesses might go under. However, Ms Harvey said Mr. Dunkley was talking about nutritional values but the law would only require complete ingredient lists in descending order of weight.

She said as technology improved nutritional values might be easier to ascertain and the law could be tightened further.

Information about food too small to bear a label will now have to be provided at the point of sale.

Supermart general manager Tredick Gorham said Government, stores and wholesalers had been working hard on the new law and he said stores and manufacturers were waiting until it was clear what format food information would take before setting up the machines to print labels. He said: "Everyone is looking forward to it." He explained food was still good for a day after the expiry date as stores could not sell stuff that was expiring within the hour.

Mrs. Harvey said the new laws would make sure the vital information stayed with products when they were broken into smaller units - including non-food goods.

She cited the example of bulk shipments of MonierLifetiles which came with a warning that dry cutting would pose a risk of cancer and birth defects.

"That's part of our concern." She said inspectors were checking with importers to see what information was given out when the tiles were sold.