Food News

The EU Commission and Member States currently see no need for EU-wide labelling facilitation for vegetable oils.

The appeals of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and industry associations to be allowed to switch to other vegetable oils without changing the ingredient lists or by means of additional labels due to the shortage of raw materials for sunflower oil have not been granted. The Commission is of the (informal) preliminary opinion that national solo efforts in food labelling practice must be avoided. A uniform solution should be sought throughout Europe in order to avoid misdeclaration.

As suggested by the Netherlands, this could possibly consist in the fact that all vegetable oils used must continue to be indicated on the labels, but that the indication of the percentages could be dispensed with for a limited period of time. The discussions are ongoing.