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Revision of Food Standards Agency food labelling guidance on country of origin

Thursday 20 September 2007

The Agency issued Country of Origin Guidance in 2002 and is now seeking to issue improved guidance. The guidance sets out legislative requirements relevant to origin labelling and advice on compliance with legislation, as well as best practice advice.

All comments and views should be sent to:

Janet McKenzie

Food Labelling and Marketing Terms Branch
Labelling, Standards and Allergy Division
Food Standards Agency
Room 115B
Aviation House
125 Kingsway
London WC2B 6NH

Tel: 0207 276 8172
Fax: 0207 276 8193
E-mail: janet.mckenzie@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

Responses are requested by: 13 December 2007

Summary of responses is now available

PDF Document (pdf 144KB)

Consultation details

The objectives of the guidance are as follows:

The proposals are to revise the guidance to include:

  1. reformatting of the document to enable better accessibility for small and medium enterprises
  2. updating of relevant legal information, including Article 16, of Regulation EC 178/2002 and commodities legislation
  3. advice on avoiding misleading labelling with regard to products that are of a particular culinary style
  4. advice on avoiding misleading labelling for origin declarations for products from Northern Ireland
  5. best practice advice on providing voluntary additional information in the form of a 'Produced in Y' statement, if in fact the product is labelled as 'Packed in X', to avoid “'Packed in X' implying origin. This would clearly show that it is produced in a different country to that in which it is packed. If the product is produced in the same country as it is packed the 'Packed in X' indication would not be misleading when used alone
  6. best practice advice on avoiding misleading presentation and display of products in store

These changes to the guidance would provide updated advice on compliance with legislation (3 and 4) and improve best practice advice (5 and 6) for industry that should result in more informative labelling that is helpful to consumers.

Further information

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the (External) HM Government Code of Practice on Consultation , which states that a consultation must follow better regulation best practice, including carrying out an Impact Assessment (Regulatory Impact Assessment in Scotland). The assessment is included in the consultation documents.

We are interested in what you thought of this consultation and would therefore welcome your general feedback on both the consultation package and overall consultation process. If you would like to assist us to improve the quality of future consultations, please feel free to share your thoughts with us by using the consultation feedback questionnaire.

Download word Consultation feedback questionnaire  (Word)

Download pdf Consultation feedback questionnaire  (pdf)

Publication of personal data and confidentiality of responses

In accordance with the FSA principle of openness our Information Centre at Aviation House will hold a copy of the completed consultation. The FSA will publish a summary of responses, which may include personal data, such as your full name. Disclosure of any other personal data would be made only upon request for the full consultation responses. If you do not want this information to be released, please complete and return the Publication of Personal Data Form. Return of this form does not mean that we will treat your response to the consultation as confidential, just your personal data.

Download word Data protection form  (Word)

Download pdf Data protection form  (pdf)

Publication of response summary

Within three months of a consultation ending we aim to publish a summary of responses received and provide a link to it from this page.

If, after three months, the summary is still not showing, please contact the person who was responsible for the original consultation. Alternatively, you can contact the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator by email: consultationcoordinator@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

Related links

Revision of Food Standards Agency food labelling guidance on country of origin Draft revised guidance, Impact Assessment and list of consultees

Download pdf  (pdf 1MB) (External) Get Adobe Acrobat reader You may need the free Acrobat Reader to view a pdf

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