Legislation on dietary foods requires clarification

摘要

Faced with the haphazard interpretation by member states of the EU legislation on putting dietary foods on the market, the European Commission believes that the situation needs to be clarified. It is in particular a question of clarifying the rule for the official controls on foods labelled with, for example, 'gluten free' or 'lactose free'. Furthermore, notes the EU executive in its report, "the majority of member states consider that the notification system should be streamlined in such as way as to guarantee the standardised implementation of Com- munity provisions". All the more so since until now a large part of the products covered by the legislation on goods destined for a particular food has fallen in the scope of nutritional and health allegations. Most of the foods still covered by the regulation on dietary products are now innovations not included in a generally recognised food category. Hence the different interpretations of the authorities responsible for carrying out official controls and the disparity of rules applied by member states.