Foodlaw-Reading

Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK

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Food Law News - EU - 2020

Council Meeting, 27 January 2020

HONEY / LABELLING - Council Meeting: Joint declaration …. on origin labelling of honey blends

The following is an extract from the Minutes of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on the 27 January 2020:

Étiquetage du miel

Au nom de plusieurs délégations, la Slovénie et le Portugal ont présenté une déclaration concernant l'étiquetage de l'origine des mélanges de miel (5389/20). Ils y déclarent que les règles actuelles en matière d'étiquetage de ces mélanges ne fournissent pas aux consommateurs des informations complètes et fiables sur l'origine du miel.   Dans leur majorité, les délégations ont apporté leur soutien aux signataires de la déclaration et à l'appel que ces derniers ont adressé à la Commission européenne afin qu'elle envisage de se saisir de la directive sur le miel (2001/110/CE) afin de prescrire un étiquetage plus clair de l'origine des mélanges de miel.

The following is the text of the paper. (For the official pdf version, see: Joint Declaration):

Joint declaration of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain on origin labelling of honey blends

1. The beekeeping sector is vital for the European Union and contributes significantly to society, both economically and environmentally by maintaining the ecological balance, biodiversity and by the services bees provide through pollination also to food production and food security. Economically the production of honey and other bee products is very important for farmers and beekeepers. However the sector faces many challenges in economic, health and environmental terms including the origin of honey.

2. The Directive on honey (2001/110/EC) imposes obligation on labelling of country of origin for honey. However in case of blend of honeys harvested from more than one country, the honey might be labelled as appropriate: “blend of EU honeys” or “blend of non-EU honeys” or “blend of EU and non-EU honeys”.

3. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain believe that such labelling of blends does not provide to consumers comprehensive and reliable information on origin of honey, while acknowledging high sensibility of European consumers to such information. Reports show that imported honey with non-EU origin is cheaper than European honey1. Even if consumers theoretically have a possibility to choose origin-labelled honey, in reality “an EU/non EU” labelling creates an information bias among consumers. While the growing demands of consumers for more information are a fact, in many cases the price of the product is still the main driver for them. Consequently, consumers who opt for cheaper product receive less information than the ones choosing more expensive ones.

4. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain are of the opinion that the consumers and EU citizens should receive the same quality and reliability of information regardless of the price of the product.

5. Moreover, it is of prime importance that honey and honey blends commercialised within the EU abide by the same labelling standards in order to ensure fair competition. As the Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and Council on the implementation of the measures concerning the apiculture sector of Regulation 1308/2013 (published on December 2016) states, honey imported from third countries is much cheaper than honey produced in the EU. Due to higher production costs EU producers can hardly compete with imported honey.

6. At the same time Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain underline that the EU is committed to high environmental and quality standards for production and that labelling of origin of honey blends would pose for better traceability of products; consequently provide an additional element of quality assessment, which is a key factor also from the food safety point of view. It would as well prevent misleading the consumers and establish fair marketing practises.

7. Therefore Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain call upon the European Commission to consider opening the Directive on honey (2001/110/EC) in order to tackle the problems mentioned, in particular to prescribe for clearer origin labelling of blend of honey.


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