The European Commission has announced the adoption of strategies to support biodiversity and “transition to a sustainable EU food system that safeguards food security and ensures access to healthy diets sourced from a healthy planet.” “The coronavirus crisis has underlined the importance of a robust and resilient food system that functions in all circumstances, and is capable of ensuring access to a sufficient supply of affordable food for citizens,” a question-and-answer resource on the program stated. “It has also made us acutely aware of the interrelations between our health, ecosystems, supply chains, consumption patterns and planetary boundaries.” The program’s goals include reduction of chemical pesticides, preservation of soil nutrients, reduction in sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals and aquaculture, and an increase in organic farming by 2030. The program will also include the proposal of mandatory front-of-packaging nutrition labeling and efforts to reduce food waste.
Tag Archives EU
Consumers and regulators have long expressed concerns about the safety of plastic and other materials in packaging for food, and in 2019, concern turned towards perfluorinated compounds (PFAS). Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) introduced legislation in May that would ban PFAS in food containers and cookware, and a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) presentation was revealed that reportedly disclosed that agency researchers found high levels of PFAS in meat, fish, leafy greens and chocolate cake. In its response to headlines about the presentation, FDA stated, "Overall, our findings did not detect PFAS in the vast majority of the foods tested. … In addition, based on the best available current science, the FDA does not have any indication that these substances are a human health concern, in other words a food safety risk in human food, at the levels found in this limited sampling. These data give our scientists a benchmark…
In testimony before the House Agriculture Subcommittee, Under Secretary of Agriculture Greg Ibach suggested that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could potentially be used in the production of organic foods eventually. "As the National Organic Standards Board set the rules originally, right now GMO or transgenics are not eligible to be in the Organic Program, but we've seen new technology evolve that includes gene editing that accomplishes things in shorter periods of time that can be done through a natural breeding process," Ibach stated. "I think there is the opportunity to open the discussion to consider whether it is appropriate for some of these new technologies that include gene editing to be eligible to be used to enhance organic production and to have resistant varieties—drought-resistant, disease-resistant varieties as well as higher-yielding varieties—available." Meanwhile, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released guidance on how human dietary exposure to newly expressed proteins in…
The European Union has requested a World Trade Organization consultation with the United States to address the imposition of tariffs on Spanish olives in August 2018. The United States reportedly applied countervailing and anti-dumping tariffs of 34.75 percent to the import of Spanish black olives on the grounds that Spanish growers receive benefits from the EU that are unavailable to other growers, such as those in California.
The European Parliament has adopted rules governing the certification and labeling of organic foods, including supply chain checks and updated standards for organic foods imported from non-EU countries. The rules also cover plant seeds, allowing producers to offer locally adapted traditional varieties for sale and use. "Organic standards are already very high, but consumer confidence can best be strengthened when the rules are clear and comprehensible. The new regulation wil[l] certainly make a positive contribution here," MEP Martin Häusling said in a interview. “Moreover, many of the rules that give producers security are also beneficial to consumers. The annual process-oriented controls mean consumers can be sure companies are inspected regularly."
The European Commission has proposed changes to directives governing food safety, marketing and distribution. According to an EU news release, the proposal would update the General Food Law, "which dates back from 2002 and thus needs an update," and "will give citizens greater access to information submitted to the European Food Safety Authority [(EFSA)] on approvals concerning the agri-food chain." The EU proposes to create a registry of commissioned studies available to the public and predicts that Member States will be more involved in EFSA's governance structure and scientific panels. The proposal also reportedly targets "dual foods," or foods marketed across the continent but produced and sold with ingredients of reduced quality in some areas. Additional details on the New Deal for Consumers, including proposed rules on collective redress, appear in Shook's Product Liability Bulletin.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed to allow the import of raw bivalve molluscan shellfish—including clams, mussels, oysters and scallops—harvested in the Netherlands and Spain by officially acknowledging that the EU food-safety system provides "at least the same level of sanitary protection as the United States' system and is therefore equivalent." The United States and the European Commission have not yet reached equivalence findings on food labeling requirements, maximum levels for food additives, maximum pesticide residue limits, drug residue limits or limits on other contaminants. "These critical determinations are a result of a multi-year, in-depth and cooperative review of shellfish safety systems in the U.S. and the EU, in which technical experts on both sides of the Atlantic have concluded that many of the safety controls in the EU and the U.S are equivalent," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. "Both governments recommended these actions…
An EU magistrate has returned a preliminary ruling in a dispute between the Scotch Whisky Association and a German manufacturer of a spirit called “Glen Buchenbach” that may hinder the trade group's claim of infringement of the registered geographical term “Scotch Whisky.” Scotch Whisky Ass’n, The Registered Office v. Klotz, No. C-44/17 (opinion of advocate general issued February 22, 2018). The trade group argues that the use of the Gaelic term “Glen” is both an indirect commercial use and an evocation of the registered geographical indication, amounting to a false and misleading indication of origin of the product. Noting that at least three whiskies produced outside of Scotland include "glen" as part of their names, the magistrate found that "‘Glen’ does not have a sufficiently clear and direct link with the protected geographical indication in question.” The indirect use of a registered geographical indication, the court found, “requires the disputed…
Greek officials have reportedly charged seven people with criminal fraud and money laundering related to the sale of adulterated olive oil. The group allegedly added green dyes to sunflower seed oil then sold it off-market as extra-virgin olive oil. Most of the oil was sold in Greece or exported to Germany and other EU countries using invoices that were later destroyed. The Greek police reportedly became aware of the sale of adulterated oil when olive oil producers told the Hellenic Food Authority that their producer codes were being used on packages and products they did not sell.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) has issued a ruling that may result in price-fixing fines of up to $5 million for 18 endive producers alleged to have created a “complex and continuous cartel” intended to enforce minimum producer prices. President of the Autorité de la concurrence v. Assoc. des producteurs vendeurs d’endives, No. C-671/15 (E.C.R., entered November 14, 2017). The dispute began in 2007 after French officials for consumer affairs and fraud prevention referred an investigation of industry practices to the French Competition Authority (FCA). After an appeals court reversal holding that the producers had not engaged in price-fixing, FCA brought an appeal in cassation; that court stayed proceedings and asked the ECJ for a preliminary ruling on the matter. ECJ held that practices related to the collective fixing of prices, control of products or exchanges of strategic trade information violate the Treaty on the Functioning…
