EU Court of Justice states that mandatory origin labelling for food is allowed only if ‘justified’
05 October 2020
In a ruling on 1 October, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) stated that the EU harmonised framework for food labelling “does not preclude member states from adopting measures providing for additional mandatory particulars regarding the origin or provenance.”
However the ECJ added that those national measures need to be justified on one or several grounds, including the protection of public health and prevention of food fraud.
This means that the adoption of mandatory origin labelling is possible only if there is a “proven link between certain qualities of the food concerned and their origin of provenance.”
On the same topic, the Commission will launch an inception impact assessment this autumn to assess the potential impact an extension of mandatory origin labelling could have on food business operators, farmers and consumers.
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