Food manufacturers will have a long wait for the crucial technical rules that will enable them to participate in the new proposed EU labelling scheme, European Commission officials have told just-food.
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In a package unveiled yesterday (16 July), the Commission announced plans to extend its “Eco-label” programme to cover more sectors, including all of the food and beverage industry.
However, Commission officials warned today that even assuming this proposed expansion is approved promptly by MEPs and EU ministers – a process that could take until 2009 -applications for technical rules saying how a particular foodstuff could be deemed sufficiently environmentally-friendly to carry the label would then be required.
This process of validation could take up to a year or even longer, officials told just-food.
“This is essentially a framework regulation which will allow us to authorise certain products but we’re not obliged to do anything, and in any case each application will have to be approved by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament,” said one bureaucrat. “There are thousands of products that already qualify for the label but for which we have not yet developed eco-label criteria.”
As it stands, the regulation authorises eco-labels for processed food and drink and all fisheries products, so that both farmed fish and wild fresh fish could qualify, but fresh food, including fruit is not provided for.
The Brussels officials said the initiative was largely a response to pressure from some retailers. There had been none from the food manufacturing industry itself.
