Questions and answers on the origin of "primary ingredients" published
Feb 10, 2020 - Foods
Questions and answers on the origin of "primary ingredients" published
On January 31, 2020, the European Commission published the notice on the application of Article 26(3) of the Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (Food Information Regulation) regarding the indication of the origin of primary ingredients.
Article 26(3) of the Food Information Regulation stipulates that if a food product indicates the country of origin or place of provenance and this is not the same as that of its so-called "primary ingredient", the country of origin or place of provenance of the primary ingredient must also be indicated.
The notice addresses various questions about the scope of Article 26(3) of the Food Information Regulation, such as:
- Can the name/business name and address of the food business operator indicated on the label trigger the application of Article 26(3) of the regulation?
- Are customary names containing a geographical indication (such as Frankfurter sausages) to be understood as indicating the country of origin or place of provenance of the food product?
- Are terms like "made in", "produced in", and "product of" followed by a geographical indication to be understood as indicating the country of origin or place of provenance of the food product?
Furthermore, the notice also addresses how to determine the primary ingredient of a food product and whether a food product can have none or multiple primary ingredients.
The background of the notice is that, according to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/775, from April 1, 2020, it is mandatory to indicate the origin of the primary ingredient of a food product if its origin differs from the origin declared directly or indirectly of the compound food product.
We will keep you informed of further developments.
For questions, our customer support is happy to assist you.
Sources:
KWG Lawyers: www.kwg.eu,
Cibus Lawyers www.cibus-recht.de,
Link to the notice: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:JOC_2020_032_R_0001&from=DE