Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2013

EU LAW on Food Labels – Beneficial for consumers, complex for manufacturers?

As part of the European Union integration process, unified laws and regulations on food labelling were agreed upon by the EU commission and the representatives of the member states. The EU Council and EU Parliament reviewed and debated on a new set of policies for submission. After years of discussions and amendments, a directive called Food Information Regulation (FIR) has been decided to implement the general food label requirements as well as mandatory nutrition labeling on December 2014 and 2016. FIR has been published in the EU Official Journal, which signals the start of the “transition process” of the current rules on food labelling. [1] The main goal of the directive is to ensure the safety of the consumers by giving them accurate information on the composition of food products, guiding them to make right and healthy food choices. Several cases such as the Horsemeat scandal, in which horsemeat was found in pre-packaged food products instead of beef, prove that there is a