FSA Consultation Letter, 20 September 2007

LABELLING - Revision of Food Standards Agency food labelling guidance on country of origin

A copy of the consultation document including the draft guidance is available on this site: Draft Country of Origin Guidance

The Agency issued Country of Origin Guidance in 2002 and is now seeking to issue improved guidance. The guidance sets out legislative requirements relevant to origin labelling and advice on compliance with legislation, as well as best practice advice. Responses are requested by: 13 December 2007

Consultation details

The objectives of the guidance are as follows:

• to improve labelling practice with respect to origin labelling and compliance with country of origin and misleading labelling legislation, in the manufacturing, retail and the catering sectors
• to improve consumer confidence in such labelling
• to provide enforcement authorities with guidance to help them improve labelling advice

The proposals are to revise the guidance to include:

• reformatting of the document to enable better accessibility for small and medium enterprises
• updating of relevant legal information, including Article 16, of Regulation EC 178/2002 and commodities legislation
• advice on avoiding misleading labelling with regard to products that are of a particular culinary style
• advice on avoiding misleading labelling for origin declarations for products from Northern Ireland
• best practice advice on providing voluntary additional information in the form of a 'Produced in Y' statement, if in fact the product is labelled as 'Packed in X', to avoid “'Packed in X' implying origin. This would clearly show that it is produced in a different country to that in which it is packed. If the product is produced in the same country as it is packed the 'Packed in X' indication would not be misleading when used alone
• best practice advice on avoiding misleading presentation and display of products in store

These changes to the guidance would provide updated advice on compliance with legislation (3 and 4) and improve best practice advice (5 and 6) for industry that should result in more informative labelling that is helpful to consumers.