Country of Origin Labelling
Under current European labelling rules, food and drink manufacturers must say
on-pack where a product has come from if not doing this could mislead consumers
about its origin. For example, if a company produces a bottle of olive oil which
has
Italian words or images on the label, but the oil was made from Spanish
olives,
it would be necessary to state the origin of the product. But beyond
this
requirement not to mislead, country of origin labelling is voluntary.
The European Commission is currently working on a new piece of labelling
legislation, called the Food Information Regulation, which will cover country of
origin
labelling. In essence, the existing requirements will not change, and this
is
welcomed by FDF. Mandatory country of origin labelling of products would be
burdensome for food and drink companies to achieve. It would add costs and
contribute
little to improving information for consumers and nothing to food
safety.
The new regulation, which is in draft form so is not finalised yet, does add a
new requirement about including the country of origin of individual ingredients
in
a composite product (one containing more than one ingredient). It says that
if
the origin of one of the main ingredients is different from the voluntarily
declared origin of the finished product, then this should be stated in the
ingredients
list. FDF is satisfied that this proposal simply extends the existing
principle of
making sure a product does not mislead consumers. However, we
believe
that there
should be no basic requirement to provide origin labelling
of
all
ingredients of
manufactured products. It is difficult to ensure a
consistent
supply of some
ingredients from a single origin, particularly
those
which
are
seasonal, and
introduction of such a measure would force
manufacturers to
make
constant changes to
their labels. Ultimately, this
would
reduce consumer
choice
by
making manufacture of
many products too
expensive.
More Information
Last reviewed: 16 May 2008