Food Law

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The following is a Press Release on the Green Paper. The Executive Summary is also provided as a separate page.

IP/97/370
Brussels, 30 April 1997
Green Paper on European food law

The food sector is of vital importance to the European economy. Annual consumption of food and drink in the EU in 1996 is estimated at about ECU 500 000 million. European households spend on average about 20% of their disposable income on food and drink. Some 2.3 million people are employed in this industry.

As a result of the Internal Market programme and the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy, the vast majority of national food legislation has been harmonized at Community level. For many foodstuffs of agricultural origin common quality standards have been laid down. However, European food law has developed piecemeal over time. Consequently, there is no central unifying text setting out the fundamental principles of food law and clearly defining the obligations of those concerned.

The basic goals of Community food law are:
1. to ensure a high level of protection of public health, safety and other consumer interests;
2. to ensure the free movement of goods within the internal market;
3. to ensure that the legislation is primarily based on scientific evidence and risk assessment;
4. to ensure the competitiveness of European industry and enhance its export prospects;
5. to place the primary responsibility for food safety on industry, producers and suppliers.

Moreover, food law must of course be coherent, rational and user friendly.

With this Green Paper the Commission does not intend to question these objectives; they should be pursued further. But the Commission wishes to launch a public debate on

• whether existing legislation meets the needs and expectations of consumers, producers,
• manufacturers and traders;
• whether the control and inspection systems operate satisfactorily;
• how Community food law could be developed in the future.

Overall it is the Commission's wish to ensure that the regulatory framework covers the whole food chain "from the stable to the table" and that the common legal provisions are correctly applied and properly verified. In order to achieve this, the Commission raises the following questions for discussion:

• Is it possible, notwithstanding the differences between agricultural production and the processed foodstuffs sector, to apply the same set of general rules to both?
• Should the principle of producers' liability for defective products be made obligatory also for primary agricultural production?
• Can the subsidiarity principle be optimally applied in food legislation?
• Should new definitions be introduced in Community legislation (e.g. the concept of "foodstuffs" has hitherto not been defined at European level)?
• How can the independence and objectivity of scientific advisers and committees be guaranteed?
• How can it be ensured that labelling is not subject to unnecessarily detailed provisions and that at the same time consumers are provided with useful information?

The Commission invites the other European and national institutions and all interested groups to submit their opinions by 31 July 1997.