Food Law Corner

The CERHA HEMPEL Food Law Corner provides an insight into current legal developments and the latest case-law in the food and beverage industry. Our attorneys regularly advise clients on the regulatory requirements in connection with food information, health and nutrition claims, advertising & marketing, novel foods, the introduction of food supplements on the market and much more. We represent our clients in administrative proceedings, cases under the Unfair Competition Act, and trademark protection including PDO and PGI.

Posts tagged with provision of food information to consumers

Important ruling by Administrative Court – retailer responsibility under food labelling law

The question of who bears responsibility for ensuring that food is labelled in compliance with the law is an issue of practical importance: Is it the manufacturer or the retailer?

Strict conditions for national measures imposing certain additional particulars regarding origin or provenance

Harmonised European Union legislation that imposes an obligation to indicate the country of origin or place of provenance of foods does not preclude Member States from adopting additional national legislation providing for additional mandatory particulars regarding the origin or provenance. However, certain conditions must be met. In particular, there must be an objectively proven link between certain qualities of the food and its origin or provenance.

Deceptive packaging: Cake packaging – with 40% to 50% less content than its appearance would suggest – is deemed to be deception if the oversized packaging is avoidable

The case focussed on the issue of the non-transparent outer packaging used for a chocolate cake. The packaging contained five pieces of cake, each individually wrapped in silver foil. Warm air becomes trapped within the packaging of the individual pieces of cake when they are sealed inside. This explains why they have a greater volume (approximately 10%) immediately after being sealed. "Removing the air" from the individual packages, which would result in there being enough space for a total of six pieces of cake, is not possible using packaging equipment manufactured from the 1990s. This would be possible if newer machines were used. The actual total weight of the packaged contents, amounting to 150g, was stated on one of the narrow sides of the outer packaging.