Draft general guidelines on implementation
The Commission is intending to submit a further draft of these guidelines to the Standing Committee for Foodstuffs in October for discussion. It will not be submitted for formal adoption as an official text (and will not be published in the Official Journal). This is because the Commission has been advised by its legal services that is has no remit to interpret legislation in this way. It is understood that the final version of the guidelines will simply be annexed to the minutes of the Standing Committee meeting.
It is hope to see a further draft of the Commission’s document prior to the meeting in October and the JFSSG will then take the opportunity to ensure that the UK guidance is fully consistent with it before producing a final draft of the UK document. This will probably follow the Standing Committee meeting to ensure that any further changes which may be made are taken fully into account.
The European Commission has based its guidelines heavily on the work started by the UK. The UK will shortly be writing to the Commission asking for some minor drafting changes to be made to the text.
Draft Commission Directive on derogations
The Commission has issued a draft of a directive which would provide for certain derogations from the general requirements of the QUID labelling requirements. As with the draft guidelines, the Commission intends to submit this draft Directive to the Standing Committee for Foodstuffs in October for discussion and with a view to taking a formal vote for adoption. The draft contains a listing of certain foods for which there would be a derogation so as to allow a QUID declaration on a final product basis for certain types of food. The Commission has asked member states to set out how they would like to see this derogation amended to address concerns raised at the meeting in July.