Compulsory indications on food labels: moving forward or behind? (EU) Regulation No 1169/2011

Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, provides for the compulsory indication of the name -or the business name- and the full address of the so called food business operator, namely the subject responsible for the information about the food which must act as guarantor of the exactness of the food labels. The Regulation does not require, on the other hand, any other indication such as the name of the manufacturer, the seller and/or the packaging company.

With a note dated July 31st, 2014, the Ministry of Economic Development clarified that the indication of the seat of the production or packaging facility must be considered as “additional voluntary information”; therefore, while from one side the indication of the food business operator – as defined above – cannot be omitted, on the other hand any confusion between the compulsory indication of the responsible of the information about the product and the optional information of the seat of the production or packaging facility shall be avoided.

In the month of November 2015 the Italian Council of Ministers gave its final green light to the project of European delegated law for the reintroduction of the compulsoriness of the indication of the seat of the production or packaging facility, indication de facto abolished by Reg. NO 1169/2011; such act derives from a recommendation, dated February 2015, of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Politics. The law is now at the Parliament, for its approval.

The aim of the latter is therefore to restore the regime of information as per Legislative Decree 109/1992, which considered as compulsory the indication of the seat of the production or packaging facility, with some exceptions (cases in which the facility is placed in the same location of the seat indicate in the label, pre-packed products coming from other Countries for their sale in Italy, pre-packed products with public health stamp). The compulsory indication of the production or packaging facility on the label of food products will concern food products produced in Italy and intended for the Italian market.