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Editorial


2019 is going to be an eventful year: in May, the European elections will take place — shortly thereafter, at least as currently planned, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU. A final agreement in the Brexit negotiations has not yet been reached and is more than uncertain. According to these upcoming events that await us, this year’s first article “UK Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs Guidance: Producing and labelling food if there's no Brexit deal”, by Leticia Bourges and Luis González Vaqué, looks at the “notice about food” prepared by the British authorities in order to set out how labelling of food would be affected in the United Kingdom in case no agreement is reached.

The next article, conversely, refers to a topic which is rather continuously discussed. The consequences of food fraud are far reaching and require continuously rethinking and updating safety measures. Health risks and economic losses may be involved. The article “Dealing with Food fraud: A review of existing definitions and strategies for the prevention of food fraud, established in legal regulations focusing on Germany’s major trading partners,” by Aline Wisniewski, is the first part of two articles discussing this topic. It gives an overview of the relevant regulations, focusing especially on the German Food and Feed Code, Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 and Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

The following article “Regulation (EU) 2018/848 – The New EU Organic Food Law: War in the Villages or a New Kind of Coexistence” from Hanspeter Schmidt deals with the new regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products. The organic market has expanded in the last few years. Thus, Regulation (EU) 2018/848 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 14 June 2018. It will apply from 1 January 2021 and replace the previous Regulation (EC) No. 834/2007. The author examines these new provisions and mentions the future challenges organic farmers will have to face.

Finally, Bernd van der Meulen describes in his article “Impact of the Codex Alimentarius: The influence of the joint FAO/WHO food standards programme on EU food law” the extent of influence the Codex Alimentarius has on food law. The collection of internationally recognized adopted food standards shall provide for safe and healthy as well as correctly labelled products delivered to consumers. Thus, the Codex Alimentarius Commission regards itself as the world’s leading organisation for international food safety standards. The article shows that the Codex Alimentarius is present in all major fields of EU food law.

Maria Kietz Managing Editor

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