Review of EU food labelling legislation

The Commission is due to produce a discussion document setting out its initial ideas by the end of 2004/early 2005.

This is the first stage of the legislative process and the Food Standards Agency is keen to influence the content of this document at an early stage. The purpose of this consultation is to ask if there are any issues that you feel we should raise with the Commission.

The Agency has already identified a number of areas:

• Improved label clarity
• Review of the exemptions from listing certain additives (additives whose presence in the food is due solely to the fact that they are contained in an ingredient of the food, if they serve no significant technological function in the finished product, and additives used solely as a processing aid)
• Full ingredient listing on alcoholic drinks
• Rules on origin labelling should be clearer, to prevent misleading labelling where the origin of the product and its primary ingredients differ. In addition more origin information should be required, especially on meat

In addition to your own suggestions, please indicate whether or not you would lend your support to raising these issues by Friday 20 August 2004.

We apologise for the short time scale on this consultation but we are working to a Commission deadline.

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the HM Government Code of Practice on Consultation, which states that a consultation must follow better regulation best practice, including carrying out an Impact Assessment (Regulatory Impact Assessment in Scotland). The assessment is included in the consultation documents.

We are interested in what you thought of this consultation and would therefore welcome your general feedback on both the consultation package and overall consultation process. If you would like to assist us to improve the quality of future consultations, please feel free to share your thoughts with us by using the consultation feedback questionnaire.

Consultation feedback questionnaire (Word)

Consultation feedback questionnaire (pdf)

In accordance with the FSA principle of openness our Information Centre at Aviation House will hold a copy of the completed consultation. The FSA will publish a summary of responses, which may include personal data, such as your full name. Disclosure of any other personal data would be made only upon request for the full consultation responses. If you do not want this information to be released, please complete and return the Publication of Personal Data Form. Return of this form does not mean that we will treat your response to the consultation as confidential, just your personal data.

Data protection form (Word)

Data protection form (pdf)

Within three months of a consultation ending we aim to publish a summary of responses received and provide a link to it from this page.

If, after three months, the summary is still not showing, please contact the person who was responsible for the original consultation. Alternatively, you can contact the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator by email: consultationcoordinator@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk