Brussels, 28/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - During the evening of 26 November, the relevant management committee approved new rules giving producers, traders and consumers of olive oil marketing standards guaranteeing the quality of products and offering an effective fight against fraud. By way of reminder, the controversial rules on the hotel/restaurant/catering (HORECA) sector, consisting of using single use bottles to prevent the refilling of empty olive oil bottles in restaurants, have been withdrawn from the text at the request of Commissioner Dacian Ciolos (see EUROPE 10851).
Member states supported provisions amending the implementation regulation 29/2012 relating to olive oil marketing standards for the retail trade. Only six countries abstained from the vote: Germany, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia. The new regulation will be applicable from 13 December 2014.
No to misleading labelling. Compulsory information on olive oil (namely olive oil categories and origin for extra virgin and virgin categories) should be grouped within the main field of vision of the bottle, either on the same label or on several labels next to each other on the same container, or directly on the container. The mandatory information should appear in full and in a homogenous body of text. Such requirements aim to avoid misleading information, for example labels that hide the fact (by using smaller characters) that the oil is of inferior quality.
Storage. Many scientific studies have shown that heat and light have adverse effects on the way the quality of olive oil changes. The new rules makes it an obligation to indicate on the label the specific conditions in which the oil must be stored - i.e. in a cool, dark place - to allow consumers to be correctly informed of the best conditions in which to keep the product.
Harvest year. In order to allow consumers to ensure the product remains fresh, the new rules provide for optional mention of the harvest year on the label, but only when 100% of the content of the package comes from that harvest year. Even if the olive oil remains edible for many years, the quality can deteriorate over time.
Strengthened controls. According to the new rules, member states will have to verify that the labelling rules are correctly applied and take action in the event of a problem. The regulation stipulates that they must carry out controls to verify claims made on the labelling and compliance with the regulation. The new rules allow the strengthening and harmonisation of controls to verify that the denomination of sale of the product is in line with the content of the container, on the basis of a risk analysis, as well as sanctions. Such an approach must also make it possible to combat fraud by setting in place minimum control requirements for all member states as well as standardised reports to be submitted to the Commission, the regulation stipulates. Furthermore, the member states should define sanctions at national level. These should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
In a concern for simplification, it is envisaged that the labelling of food products preserved in olive oil no longer needs to specify the percentage of oil added compared to the net total weight of the foodstuff.
HORECA. Since withdrawal of the disputed Community measures on restaurants, in May, Italy and Spain have pledged to introduce at national level such measures as would prevent the re-use of olive oil bottles in restaurants once the content has been used up - in order to ensure that customers are not misled. Portugal has already set such legislation in place. (LC/transl.jl)