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Food Standards Agency

Sunday 5 July 2009

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Proposed regulation on food information for consumers

The European Commission issued a proposal for a new Food Information Regulation on 4 February 2008. This proposal follows an EU-wide review of both general food and nutrition labelling legislation, which began in 2004.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been representing the UK at Experts' Group meetings during the development of this proposal. Interested parties letters providing summaries of these meetings can be found at the links below.

The proposal will bring EU rules on general and nutrition labelling together into a single regulation which will simplify and consolidate existing labelling legislation. Eventually the regulation will be directly applicable in all Member States, and replace current UK law.

The adoption and publication of the proposal is the first step in the development of the regulation. Not only does the regulation have to be agreed between the 27 members of the Council but the European Parliament has to approve the text.

The FSA will represent the UK during the negotiations in the European Council, which are expected to start later this year, and will be actively engaging with stakeholders across the UK.

The FSA Board will consider the proposal in May 2008 and the UK position will then be agreed in discussion between Government Departments in Westminster and between the FSA and departments in the devolved administrations.

This is a complex process and we will be using this webpage to update stakeholders as progress is made in the negotiations on the proposal.

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Technical issues

The Commission is also separately taking forward the amendment of Council Directive 90/496/EEC on the nutrition labelling of foodstuffs. The Commission plan to revise the list of vitamins and minerals and their recommended daily allowances (RDAs), update energy conversion factors and include a definition for fibre. For relevant papers on this work area see links in the see also' section below.

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Related links

European Commission's Proposal for a Food Information Regulation Council Working Group meeting (14 and 26 November 2008) Interested parties letter 16 December 2008

Download pdf  (pdf 38KB) European Commission's Proposal for a Food Information Regulation Council Working Group meeting (26 January and 27 February 2009) Interested parties letter 19 March 2009

Download pdf  (pdf 38KB) European Commission's Proposal for a Food Information Regulation Council Working Group meeting (27 March and 27 April 2009) Interested parties letter 11 May 2009

Download pdf  (pdf 47KB) European Commission's Proposal for a Food Information Regulation Council Working Group meeting (30 September and 1 October 2008) Interested parties letter 10 October 2008

Download pdf  (pdf 28KB) European Commission’s Proposal for a Food Information Regulation Council Working Group meeting (12 February 2009) Interested parties letter 20 February 2009

Download pdf  (pdf 22KB) European Commission’s Proposal for a Food Information Regulation Council Working Group meeting (2 September 2008) Interested parties letter 15 September 2008

Download pdf  (pdf 30KB) European Commission’s Proposal for a Food Information Regulation Council Working Group meeting (20 October 2008) Interested parties letter 11 November 2008

Download pdf  (pdf 38KB) Interested parties letter on the first working group on the amendment of Council Directive 90/496/EEC – Technical issues February 2008

Download pdf  (pdf 22KB) Interested parties letters on general labelling experts' group meetings Collected letters from 2007

Download pdf  (pdf 362KB) Interested parties letters on nutrition labelling experts' group meetings Collected letters from 2006/07

Download pdf  (pdf 185KB) Proposal for a new regulation on the provision of food information to consumers Read the consultation documents Proposal for a new regulation on the provision of food information to consumers (Northern Ireland) Read the consultation documents Proposal for a new regulation on the provision of food information to consumers (Scotland) Read the consultation documents Proposal for a new regulation on the provision of food information to consumers (Wales) Read the consultation documents

External links   The Food Standards Agency has no responsibility for the content of external websites

(External) Provision of Food Information to Consumers - Proposed Legislation Information from the EU website

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FSA Wales Stakeholder event on Commission Proposal on Food Information: 2 April 2008

Meeting at the MRC Centre, Llandrindod Wells

Proposal for a new regulation on the provision of food information to consumers: note of consultation launch meeting

The Food Standards Agency hosted a meeting for stakeholders on 15 February 2008, to launch the Agency’s formal consultation on the Commission’s labelling proposal. This was an opportunity for about 100 stakeholders to receive information and give initial views.

Scottish stakeholder forum on providing food information to consumers: 12 March 2008

The Food Standards Agency in Scotland (FSAS) held a stakeholder forum in Edinburgh on the 12 March 2008. The forum provided an opportunity for the 21 attendees to receive information on the purpose and content of the Commission proposal, to facilitate open discussion and to provide their initial views.

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