The Artisan Food Law Blog

On 31 January 2013 the Department of Health (DoH) published Front of Pack Nutrition Labelling: Joint Response to Consultation. The report is a response to the consultation carried out last summer on front of pack (FoP) nutrition labelling in which the Department of Health states its commitment to the provision of information aimed at helping people make healthy choices. Will it make a difference?

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the future of organic agriculture which is open to all interested parties.

European organic production rules cover the whole production chain from farm to fork. Producers who follow the rules have the right to label their products ‘organic’ and to put the EU green leaf logo on packaging.

May be that headline should have read: Westminster insists burgers must be indigestibly tough or incinerated prior to consumption?

Over the last few weeks Westminster City Council has come in for a lot of stick for a reported crack down by environmental health officers on sales of medium rare and rare burgers.

Only joking of course, and what’s more there are a load of new acronyms for you to get used to as well.

Earlier this month Defra launched a consultation seeking views on plans for new domestic legislation to enforce the food information to consumers (FIC) Regulation (EU) 1169/2011. FIC aims to improve information provided about food so consumers can make informed choices.

On a day when I read that 1 in 5 adults think parsnips grow on trees and hear that 76% of our local butchers, some 19,000, have closed over the last 30 years my level of despair rises exponentially. I am neither a butcher nor grower of parsnips, but I almost wondered whether it’s not time to give up and simply hand over the shop keys to Tesco accepting, as the Financial Times put it earlier this year, that it was time to let the British high street die. That took a mere second because I don’t give up on the things I cherish, especially where food is concerned, not ever!

Yes, you heard it right! The EU Commission is proposing an amendment to the honey Directive 2001/110/EC to define pollen as a natural constituent of honey – it will no longer be an ingredient.

The EU appears fond of lists these days. Not long ago we had a long list of permitted health claims. Now the European Commission has adopted legislation providing for a list of over 2,100 flavourings for use in food in the EU, plus another 400 which can be used pending evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Last Wednesday, 11 July 2012, at very short notice, around 3,000 dairy farmers descended on Westminster. The memory will, I am sure, stay with thousands for years to come. Sadly this was not a cause for celebration, it marked a low point for increasingly desperate farmers struggling to get a fair price for a pint of milk, a shopping basket basic we all take for granted. The campaign surrounding the Westminster Milk Summit went well and, from late morning on the day, #sosdairy took the top trending slot on Twitter and held it consistently for the rest of the day.