European Commission Seeks Feedback on Labeling Rules

Summary

The European Commission is seek­ing feed­back from stake­hold­ers on pro­posed amend­ments to reg­u­la­tions regard­ing optional indi­ca­tions on the label­ing of olive oil, specif­i­cally address­ing the label­ing of physic­o­chem­i­cal para­me­ters when acid­ity is men­tioned and under what con­di­tions the har­vest year should be included. The pro­posed changes aim to ensure that con­sumers have accu­rate and com­pre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion about the olive oil they are pur­chas­ing, with stake­hold­ers able to pro­vide feed­back until the end of March 2018 via the European Commission’s web­site.

In view of pro­posed amend­ments to a reg­u­la­tion cov­er­ing the require­ments for cer­tain optional indi­ca­tions on the label­ing of olive oil, the European Commission’s direc­torate-gen­eral for Agriculture and Rural Development has requested feed­back from stake­hold­ers via a ded­i­cated web­site.

Specifically, the draft del­e­gated reg­u­la­tion addresses two main clar­i­fi­ca­tions cov­ered by Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 29/2012 on mar­ket­ing stan­dards for olive oil. One con­cerns the label­ing of the value of cer­tain physic­o­chem­i­cal para­me­ters in the case acid­ity is men­tioned on the label and the other deter­mines under which con­di­tions the har­vest year should be men­tioned.

With regard to the first, under the exist­ing reg­u­la­tion, the value of physic­o­chem­i­cal para­me­ters like per­ox­ide value, wax con­tent and ultra­vi­o­let absorp­tion must be included only if the acid­ity is men­tioned on the label. The pro­posed change spec­i­fies that these para­me­ters must cor­re­spond to the ​“date of min­i­mum dura­bil­ity” or in other words, the ​“best before” date. The rea­son given is that such para­me­ters often change after bot­tling and that con­sumers should not be mis­led.

Coming to the sec­ond clar­i­fi­ca­tion, i.e. under which con­di­tions the har­vest should be men­tioned, a sug­ges­tion was made by Italy to allow EU mem­ber states to decide whether to make the label­ing of the har­vest year com­pul­sory. This would con­cern extra vir­gin and vir­gin olive oil pro­duced on the coun­try’s own ter­ri­tory and intended for the domes­tic mar­ket.

Under the cur­rent reg­u­la­tion, list­ing the har­vest year on the label of extra vir­gin and olive oils is optional if the oil con­tained in the bot­tle is from a sin­gle har­vest.

The EU’s label­ing rules are designed to allow con­sumers to have cor­rect and com­pre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion about the food prod­ucts they’re buy­ing, includ­ing the con­tent and com­po­si­tion.

The draft text is avail­able in English here.

Those who are inter­ested in pro­vid­ing their feed­back can do so until the end of March 2018 via this European Commission web­page.

Feedback can be given either anony­mously or under a per­sonal name or that of an orga­ni­za­tion. The com­ments received are vis­i­ble on the web­site – so far there are very few com­ments.

Once adopted, the new act will include an overview of the feed­back received and how it con­tributed to the revised act.

• European Commission