Food Labelling
In November 2008, the European Commission submitted a Proposal on Food Information to Consumers aimed to merge EC Council Directive 2000/13/EC on labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs and Directive 90/496/EEC on nutrition labelling for foodstuffs into one legal text.
The European Parliament voted on 2nd Reading in July 2011 and after formal adoption by the EU Council early October 2011, the Food Information Regulation should be published in the EU Official Journal by the end of 2011. The transition period after the entry into force is 3 years so full compliance is expected in 2015.
In the meantime, the regulations mentioned below are still in force.
The first food labelling harmonisation legislation was EC Council Directive 79/112/EEC, afterwards amended by EC Council Directives:
- 89/395/EEC introducing the use by date
- 91/72/EEC concerning flavours in the list of ingredients
- 93/102/EC introducing the fats class name i.e." fat " together with either the adjective " vegetable "/ "animal " as appropriate, and the adjective "hydrogenated"
- 97/4/EC introducing the quantitative ingredient declaration
All these directives were consolidated in EC Council Directive 2000/13/EC, which moreover states that all food labels must contain the following elements:
- Product name/sales description
- List of ingredients (%, in decreasing order, all ingredients, including additives with specific name or E number)
- Net quantity
- Identification of responsible person (manufacturer/seller)
- Lot mark
- Use and storage indication in a language that is easily understood by the consumer
- Date of minimum durability
EC Council Directive 90/496/EEC lays down general nutrition labelling rules for foodstuffs i.e. declaration of energy, protein, carbohydrate, fat.
Additional specific labelling rules for spreadable fats are laid down in Council Regulation (EC) No 2991/94 (now incorporated in Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007, Art 115 and Annex XV) i.e.:
- Total percentage of fat content
- Vegetable, milk or animal fat content as percentage in decreasing order
- Percentage of salt content in the list of ingredients, in a particularly legible manner
- Sales denominations according to fat content level
There are specific rules for products containing olive oil laid down in Council Regulation (EC) No 1019/2002 on marketing standards for olive oil. It states that declaration of the olive oil percentage next to the trade name of foodstuffs which emphasize their olive oil content is mandatory.
Packaging
The Council Directive 89/109/EEC provides general provisions for packaging materials and for migration of substances into food.
The lot to which a foodstuff belongs has to be indicated or marked in order to be identified. This indication has to comply with Council Directive 89/396/EEC later amended by Council Directive 91/238/EEC and Council Directive 92/11/EEC.
Since 2004, the EU abolished mandatory ranges and pack sizes for foodstuffs.
Pricing and VAT
The general provisions for pricing are introduced in EC Council Directive 98/6/EC which makes among others the indication of unit pricing mandatory.
As for the value added tax (VAT), the situation for food products greatly varies across countries in the EU, ranging from i.e. 25% in Denmark to 0% in the UK.
Moreover in Belgium and France, there is a clear discrimination between VAT for butter and VAT for margarine. Indeed, in Belgium, the VAT is 12% for margarine and fat spreads, 6% for butter and in France, the VAT is 19.6% for margarine, fat spreads and blends and 5.5% for butter.
Please click here for an overview of VAT rates for yellow fats in the EU.