Skip to content
  • «
  • 1
  • »

The search returned 6 results.

Managing Post-Brexit UK-EU Food Trade journal article

How Deep Can ‘Deep Regulatory Cooperation’ Be?

Chris Downes

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 15 (2020), Issue 1, Page 35 - 52

The EU and UK have signalled their common aim of deep regulatory cooperation after Brexit. In the area of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures that govern food trade, this comprises regulatory discipline that extends beyond existing WTO obligations. While the Theresa May government’s ambition of ‘frictionless trade’ may have been cast aside, minimising new SPS barriers remains essential to the new trading relationship. This article evaluates the prospects of deep EU-UK regulatory cooperation in this domain, outlining the EU’s traditional approach to SPS Chapters in free trade agreements and discussing more ambitious alternatives. It focuses on five of the key SPS negotiating areas identified by the European Commission: approvals and authorisations, trade facilitation, transparency, bilateral consultation mechanisms and the precautionary principle. It identifies areas where advancing ‘WTO-Plus’ obligations appears feasible, and those where deeper cooperation looks less promising. In so doing, it seeks to provide a helpful framework for analysing the upcoming negotiations. Keywords: SPS; Brexit; food law; transparency; equivalence; precautionary principle; FTA; mutual recognition.


Impact of the Codex Alimentarius journal article

The Influence of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme on EU Food Law

Bernd van der Meulen

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 14 (2019), Issue 1, Page 29 - 50

The FAO and the WHO have set up a joint food standards programme with the Codex Alimentarius Commission at its core. The Codex Alimentarius Commission has a membership base of its own. It adopts standards by consensus of its member countries, based on the scientific input from risk assessment bodies that also form part of the joint FAO/WHO food standards programme. The purpose of the standards of the Codex Alimentarius is to harmonise national and regional food legislation at a global level. This article explores to what extent the influence of the Codex Alimentarius is actually present in EU food law. To this end, it identifies the major fields of EU food law on the basis of a pre-existing framework for analysis. The article shows that the Codex Alimentarius is present in all these major fields in concepts, methods, principles and rules of conduct for food businesses. Keywords: Codex Alimentarius; EU food law.


Traditional Use of Botanicals and Botanical Preparations journal article

An International Perspective

Robert Anton, Basil Mathioudakis, Suwijiyo Pramono, Ekrem Sezik, Surinder Sharma

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 14 (2019), Issue 2, Page 132 - 141

Botanicals are used worldwide in food and supplements for their nutritional and physiological effects and have become part of the local and regional cultural heritage. The use of botanicals has evolved from experience over a long period of time, often over centuries. Folk knowledge of this use has been passed on from generation to generation and later been systematically recorded. This information is collectively called ‘traditional use’ and is the largest body of observational evidence in humans available. It is recognised as a valid body of knowledge to support the safe use of botanicals and document their health benefits. This paper describes the experience on how traditional use is accepted as a basis for support of the safety and benefits for health of botanical preparations used in food supplements. It proposes a common basis for the mutual acceptance of the evidence as assessed by expert judgement that may lead to recognition of the safety and benefits of botanicals in different parts of the world. Keywords: Traditional use; botanicals; folk use; systematic use; conditions of use; physiological benefits; safety; food law; supplements.




Medicinal Claims journal article

Prohibition, Enforcement and Delineation: Food in Fact but Medicine in Law?

Bernd van der Meulen

European Food and Feed Law Review, Volume 12 (2017), Issue 5, Page 392 - 405

Under EU medicinal law, substances presented as having properties for treating or preventing disease are medicinal products by virtue of their presentation. EU food law prohibits attributing to any food the property of preventing, treating or curing a disease. However, if certain conditions are fulfilled, it is allowed to make health claims for foods. Authorities in the Netherlands take the position that the EU prohibition on medicinal claims for foods is redundant because all products with such claims are medicinal products by virtue of their presentation. Thus, claims not (fully) authorised are enforced as infringements on medicinal law. The author systematically and comparatively analyses the food law prohibition on medicinal claims in relation to the concept of medicinal product by presentation. He argues that the presentation criterion is structural in nature and depends on the overall impression an averagely well-informed consumer acquires regarding a product. The prohibition on medicinal claims is behavioural in nature. It is possible to promise consumers too much regarding beneficial properties of a food without actually making them believe that the food is a medicinal product. The author argues against the Dutch interpretation and in favour of an interpretation adhered to by most other EU Member States.

  • «
  • 1
  • »