Food Law News - UK - 2013


Defra Consultation Update, 20 August 2013

LABELLING - Summary of responses to the consultation on the Fish Labelling Regulations: Amendment to the list of Commercial Designations for Fish

This document has been published on the Defra website.  The following are two extracts from the document.  The full document is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/230406/fish-labelling-consult-sum-resp.pdf

Background

Defra conducted an eight week consultation from September to November 2012 to seek views and additional information on the new requirements being introduced to provide the consumer with additional information on fishery products at the point of retail. Views were also sought on the proposal to improve the management of the Commercial Designation list for fish in the UK.

The consultation aim was to check that the preferred option for implementing the new requirements for fish labelling made sense and is the least burdensome for those affected. It provided an opportunity for those who operate in the sector to express their views on the proposed change to how the list of commercial designations for fish will be maintained on an ongoing basis and comment on the proposed additions to the commercial designation list.

The objective is to update UK domestic fish labelling regulations to take account of new consumer information requirements so as to improve information provided to consumers and to comply with EU Regulation. The aim is to set out the new consumer information requirements in the clearest possible way by incorporating all the rules relating to consumer information under one set of Regulations.

The purpose of the consultation was to seek the views of those involved in the trade of fishery products and other stakeholders in the fish industry on the draft Fish Labelling Regulations 2013.

Conclusion

Although there were only a limited number of responses to the consultation, there were no major objections received against the requirements being introduced or to the approach to enforcement through the use of enforcement notices. Comments received in response to the estimates set out in the Impact Assessment, such as familiarisation costs and time saving benefits, backed the assumptions made as being reasonable assessments. The proposal to separate the Commercial Designation list from the SI and maintain this as a standalone internet based list was supported as being a clear improvement. In addition to support for the changes being proposed, a number of suggestions were received to add species to the Commercial Designation list and these will be assessed with advice from the fish experts group and included in the updated list where appropriate.

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