New EC food labeling proposal

The European Commission has submitted a proposal for new regulation on food labeling to the Council and European Parliament on 30 January 2008. The proposed rule applies to foods intended for the final consumer at all stages of the food chain including imports.

The main change introduced in the proposal is the mandatory labeling of key nutritional elements in the principal field of vision.

General provisions

The key aspects of the proposal are the following:

• A mandatory nutritional declaration for nearly all pre-packaged processed foods of energy, total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates and specific reference to sugars and salt expressed as amounts per 100g or per 100 ml or per portion in the front of pack.

• Mandatory information must be printed in a minimum font size of 3mm on a contrasting background.

• Allergen labeling will cover not only pre-packaged food but also food in restaurants and catering establishments.

Key nutritional information shall be clearly displayed on the front of the package. However, foods such as the following are exempted from the requirement for the mandatory nutrition declaration (Annex IV):

• Unprocessed products that comprise a single ingredient or category of ingredients;

• Processed products which the only processing they have been subjected to is smoking or maturing and that comprise a single ingredient or category of ingredients;

• Food in packaging or containers the largest surface of which has an area of less than 25 cm2.

Operators will be able to add the following nutrition information on the front pack if it does not detrimentally affect the visibility and legibility of the mandatory nutrition declaration:

• Trans fats;

• Mono-unsaturates;

• Polyunsaturates;

• Polyols;

• Starch

• Fibre

• Protein

• Minerals or vitamins listed and presented according to Annex XI of the proposal.

Presentation

Member States and stakeholders will be able to develop other forms of expression of the mandatory nutritional declaration, such as visual representative elements next to the simple numbers, as long as it does not undermine the EU rules.

The mandatory nutrition declaration shall be printed in characters of a font size of at least 3mm, ensuring significant contrast between the writing and the background. Other information such as claims or slogans cannot be presented in a way that adversely affects the presentation of the mandatory information.

Allergen labeling

Mandatory allergen labeling will be extended to non-prepacked food, including food sold in restaurants and other catering establishments in order that allergens are displayed or are available at the request of the consumers.

Origin labeling

The country of origin or place of provenance shall be listed if ingredients originate from a different place than the finished product.

Regarding tree nuts, Regulation 1182/2007 requires that foods intended to be sold to EU consumers must have the country of origin indicated.

Next steps

Depending on the co-decision procedure, the proposal could be adopted before the end of the current European Parliament’s term (June 2009).

The final regulation will replace Directive 2000/13/EC setting general labeling rules and Directive 90/496/EC setting the nutrition labeling rules.

There will be a transition period of 3 years (5 years for SMEs of less than 10 employees) for the application of the new rules once the legislation have entered into force.

EU harmonization on MRLs for pesticides set

Commission Regulation (EC) No 149/2008 establishing Annexes II, III and IV to Regulation 396/2005 has been published on 1st March, 2008. Hence, the EU harmonized pesticides MRLs for products of plant origin have been finally set and trade inconsistencies and discrepancies resulting from different MRLs between Member States should be removed.

Annexes:

• Annex I was already set under Regulation 178/2006. This Annex lists products previously not covered by EU legislation such honey, amphibians/reptiles and snails.
• Annex II compiles already existing EU MRLs.
• Annex III sets temporary MRLs (their evaluation by EU is not yet finalized):
• Part A lists tMRLs previously not harmonized by EU.
• Part B lists tMRLs for new agricultural products included in Annex I.
• Annex IV sets active substances for which there are no MRLs required.

National and EU MRLs will be replaced by these new levels from 1 September 2008. However, Article 49 of Regulation 396/2005 provides transitional measures and all MRLs will become harmonized after a transitional “phase-in” period.