Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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Commission e-News, 23 February 2018
Today, the Commission published the results of the first coordinated official controls of Internet marketed foods carried out by 25 EU Member States, Switzerland and Norway.
In September 2017 the competent national authorities checked nearly 1100 websites for offers of non-authorised novel foods and food supplements. They found 779 offers for the sale of products clearly not complying with the EU legislation, whether in terms of labelling, false claims or lack of authorisation.
This was the first time that the national authorities pooled their experience and resources, showing their preparedness to respond to the challenges of the online world and to protect the citizens from unsafe and misleading products offered online.
The e-News contained a link to a Commission web page with more details. The following is taken from that page.
Online offered food (2017)
In 2017 the Commission launched the first EU coordinated control programme on online offered food products.
The objective is to encourage Member States to identify and then control in a coordinated manner websites which offer for sale specific types of products which are clearly not in compliance with EU food law.
The programme focuses on food supplements with medicinal claims since these are forbidden to be placed on the market according to Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. It is also focused on certain novel foods which are non-authorised in the EU and which have been the subject of many notifications to the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) which indicates that there are serious health concerns associated with these products.
In addition the plant source of one of these novel foods is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and can only be imported into the EU if certain requirements are fulfilled. The presence of this plant in food and health supplements is one of the most commonly seized commodities that is infringing the CITES/EU wildlife trade rules.
Results
The coordinated control plan was very well received by the Member States. On a voluntary basis, the authorities of 25 EU Member States plus Switzerland and Norway participated. The authorities checked about 1100 websites for certain products which are non-compliant with EU food legislation, namely four non-authorised novel foods and food supplements bearing medicinal claims.
They found 779 offers for such products, mostly from traders based in the country of the respective authority (65%), but also from traders located in other Member States (20%) or third countries, namely US and China (15%). Although this was not mandatory, in about 440 cases measures were taken with the aim to close the offer, including inspection of the traders’ premises, warnings and – in some cases – fines.
For non-compliant cross-border offers, administrative assistance was requested via the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation IT system (154 cases) and in case of health concerns notifications were issued via the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (139, of which 51 were notified to US and China).
The objectives of the plan were to encourage Member States to get more engaged in the control of the e-commerce food market, to cooperate more closely on non-compliant cross-border offers and to use for this cooperation the available IT systems. It can be concluded that the objectives of the plan have been reached.
For additional information and links, see the Commission web page at: https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/official_controls/legislation/ccp/online-offered-food-2017_en
