Consumer interest balanced against costs

“The European Parliament […] calls on the Commission to investigate the possibility of limiting the scope of mandatory country of origin labelling to cases where consumer interest is balanced against the costs, such as for drinking milk as well as lightly processed dairy and meat products and to come up with legislative proposals in these areas,” the resolution reads.

In the resolution, MEPs cite the results of a 2013 Eurobarometer survey which found 90% of EU citizen respondents thought it was important the origin of meat used in processed food products was labelled. Meanwhile 84% were in favour of mandatory origin labelling for milk, whether sold as such or used as an ingredient in dairy products.

 

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Food Labelling Services comments:

The Food Labelling Regulations 2011 declares that country of origin information is mandatory for specific foods.For other foods, an indication of country of origin or place of provenance must be given if failure to indicate might mislead as to the true origin or place of provenance of a food. Consumers like to know the country of origin of products, but the benefits of this should be carefully assessed against the cost and constraints that this may place on manufacturers.