25/11/2014

From agricultural to food law





Vicente Rodríguez Fuentes et al., “From agricultural to food law”. Wageningen Academic Publishers (2014) 192 pp.
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Summary
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The differences between agricultural law and food law are becoming progressively blurred. This is only natural because both intend to control that food products placed in the market are safe and respond to a certain standard of quality. In their present form, both are relatively new legal disciplines, evolving and expanding very rapidly and a great number of new and transcendental regulations (and an increasing number of compulsory private rules) are being enacted to respond to new realities.
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One of these new realities is the legal protection of quality in food. Once almost exclusively applied to a limited number of traditional well-known products and now extended to many products covered by designations of origin or geographical indications. Another area is food safety, a major concern of the legislator. Food alerts, recalls and withdrawals have been carefully regulated to guarantee a rapid and efficient reaction, but these legal mechanisms appear to be less well-designed when dealing with the unwanted consequences of unjustified alerts. A third topic is food prices and trading conditions, an area that cannot always be completely left to unregulated market-forces due to the special nature of the product involved.
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The above issues are analysed by several experts from different legal backgrounds and countries, a varied approach adequate to the hybrid nature of food law.
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Download table of contents of the book 'From agricultural to food law' (PDF file): http://www.wageningenacademic.com/_clientfiles/TOC/EIFL-10.pdf

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19/11/2014

FCC Forum December 2014: USP Guidance on Food Fraud Mitigation

 
The USP Expert Panel on Food Ingredients Intentional Adulterants (formed at the request of the Food Ingredients Expert Committee) proposes this new Appendix to the Food Chemicals Codex to elaborate guidance frameworks and tools to assist users in the development of preventive management systems for food fraud.
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The first guidance proposed for addition to this Appendix, A. General Guidance for Food Ingredients, guides users in how to develop and implement a preventive system specifically for adulteration of food ingredients. It provides a qualitative, step-by-step and structured approach to characterize food fraud vulnerabilities and guidance on how to develop mitigation strategies. This guidance framework is generally applicable to any food ingredient, and is intended to guide users toward the development of their own fraud management system that prioritizes and focuses mitigation resources towards ingredients that not only carry the most vulnerability but also have the potential for the most detrimental consequences when fraud occurs. It is intended to be adaptable to individual operating environments that may have varying enterprise risk tolerance for food fraud, and access to different types of fraud mitigation resources. It is intended to be applicable to any user responsible for ensuring the safety and integrity of food ingredients, including companies purchasing food ingredients, regulatory authorities, along with auditors and food safety management scheme owners.
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The approach proposed in A. General Guidance for Food Ingredients is divided into four major steps. The first three steps are aimed at characterizing the overall fraud vulnerabilities of an ingredient by assessing factors contributing to fraud occurrence and the potential impacts when fraud does occur, including both public health and economic consequences. The last step provides guidance on how to use information from the first three steps to develop a mitigation strategy. Stakeholders are encouraged to evaluate the effectiveness of this tool and provide comments and feedback to Jeff Moore, Ph.D., Senior Scientific Liaison at JM@usp.org.
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Additional, similar guidance sections that tailor this general approach to specific ingredient categories such as milk-based food ingredients are planned as future additions to this Appendix. Stakeholders interested in contributing to additional guidance categories in this area can contact Jeff Moore, Ph.D., Senior Scientific Liaison at JM@usp.org.
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This proposal is targeted for publication in the Third Supplement to FCC 9.
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Comment deadline: March 31, 2015
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18/11/2014

Oportunidades para la exportación de alimentos a China


 

 

China se ha convertido en uno de los mercados de referencia para el sector alimentario a nivel mundial. Y para España constituye una gran oportunidad para aumentar sus exportaciones

Luis González Vaqué

Presidente de China-European Union Food Law Working Party

El formidable crecimiento económico experimentado por China en los últimos 20 años ha incrementado notablemente el poder adquisitivo de centenares de millones de consumidores. Según una estadística recientemente publicada, una empleada de hogar que en el año 2008 cobraba 8 RMB (renmibi) por hora, hoy en día gana 20. Se calcula que la renta disponible de la población aumenta cada año un promedio del 10 por ciento.

Nos referimos a un fenómeno que todavía se está produciendo y que con toda probabilidad se prolongará a corto y medio plazo, por supuesto, con sus fluctuaciones, pues la economía es aún más variable y cambiante cuando los países desarrollados se hallan inmersos en una crisis cuyo final no acaba de llegar. La consecuencia de este sostenido crecimiento es la mejora del nivel de vida de sectores muy amplios de la población china, lo que a su vez conlleva un incremento cuantitativo y cualitativo del consumo alimentario.

Centenares de millones de personas pueden satisfacer hoy en día su necesidad de alimentos en una medida mucho mayor respecto al pasado: si en 1960 un ciudadano chino disponía -de media- de 1.700 kcal al día, la cifra en 2009 se elevaba ya a un promedio de 3.036. Un desarrollo de tales proporciones constituye, sin duda alguna, una gran oportunidad de comerciar y, de hecho, China se ha convertido en uno de los mercados de referencia para el sector alimentario a nivel mundial. Y para España constituye una gran oportunidad para aumentar sus exportaciones.

Es cierto que son ya muchas las empresas alimentarias de nuestro país que han encontrado en ese inmenso mercado una salida airosa para sus excedentes de producción. En efecto, en líneas generales podemos afirmar que España está entre los primeros siete países exportadores de productos que calificaríamos de representativos -en particular, pasta, vino, aceite, productos de la acuicultura, cítricos, embutidos y queso-. En definitiva, aunque el volumen de las exportaciones españolas no sea todavía en términos absolutos muy elevado,

cada año asistimos a una mejora constante y significativa, y, sobre todo, hemos de subrayar que los productos españoles gozan de una excelente reputación.



15/11/2014

Question for written answer E-004785/14 to the Commission - Gilles Pargneaux: Labelling not in line with provisions on genetically modified organisms (GMO)

 
 
 
Question for written answer E-004785/14 to the Commission - Gilles Pargneaux (S&D)(15 April 2014)
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Subject: Labelling not in line with provisions on genetically modified organisms (GMO)
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In a report on its 2012 animal feed inspection programme, France's Competition, Consumer Protection and Anti-Fraud Directorate-General reveals that, in recent years, close to 10% of animal feed has not been labelled in line with GMO provisions.
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Is the Commission aware of that report?
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If so, what does it intend to do to combat such fraudulent practices?
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Answer given by Mr Borg on behalf of the Commission (17 June 2014)
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The EU legislation, and particularly Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003(1) on genetically modified food and feed, foresees compulsory labelling requirements for those food and feed products which contain, consist or are produced from GMOs which have been authorised in accordance with the relevant procedure established by the regulation, with the exception of a presence below 0,9% and technically unavoidable.
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The control and enforcement of EU labelling requirements is the responsibility of Member States, as referred to in Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 on food and feed controls(2)
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Following the question raised by the Honourable Member as regards the report issued by France's Competition, Consumer Protection and Anti-Fraud Directorate-General on its 2012 inspection programme on GMO labelling on animal feed, the Commission services have asked the French authorities to supply a copy of this report. It appears from this report that non-compliances with labelling requirement are not necessarily intentional and thus be assimilated to fraudulent practices. National administrative or jurisdictional actions, as the case may be, are engaged in the case of repeated incompliance or of refusal by the operator to proceed to the improvements required.
(1)OJ L 268, 18.10.2003.
(2)OJ L 191, 28.5.2004.
 
 
 


 
 
 
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03/11/2014

Los 10 mejores acuerdos para 500 millones de consumidores



© Imágenes: Thinkstockphotos
© Unión Europea, 2014
Reproducción autorizada, con indicación de la fuente bibliográfica.
Printed in Belgium
 
Consultar: https://app.box.com/s/qhxy4tnyvxcxbo89lb3o

01/11/2014

Rovigo, 27-28 novembre 2014: Il diritto alimentare, laboratorio del nuovo diritto europeo - Un bilancio a 10 anni dalla costituzione dell'AIDA




Il Convegno  sarà articolato in due sessioni: 
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- la prima, centrata su profili di regolazione intesi a garantire un'alimentazione non soltanto safe ma anche healthy, e più in generale attenta al controverso tema dell'educazione alimentare come possibile oggetto del diritto alimentare del prossimo futuro;
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- la seconda, di taglio istituzionale, riprende il tema delle fonti dei privati già trattato nei convegni AIDA di Viterbo del 2011 e di Messina del 2012, intesa a ri-considerare gli esiti della crescente attribuzione di compiti "pubblici" a soggetti privati, in prospettiva sistematica ed anche in aree disci-plinari diverse da quella immediatamente investita dalla legislazione alimentare.
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La partecipazione è gratuita, ma per ragioni organizzative è necessario iscriversi: redazione@aida-ifla.it 
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Programma: https://app.box.com/s/vu4bv4zv54n2x0l0iu80

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