Does EU food legislation need to change?

The quality of products in different EU Member States became one of the topics that resonated both in the EU institutions and in the Member States themselves after the State of the European Union speech by President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.

In the speech, President Juncker said that dual quality of products in the Single Market is unacceptable and shortly after that, the Commission issued a set of guidelines on the application of EU food and consumer laws to dual quality products. The guidelines should act as a tool for relevant authorities in the Member States to assess whether the products sold in different Member States are of the same composition.

In addition, the Commission also announced that it will provide financial support for creating a common testing methodology for assessing the composition of products, which should help unite the rules for testing of products across the EU. There is already a legislative base set in the EU that should tackle the issue, namely the Food Information Regulation and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. However, as part of the discussion, the EU wants to assess whether there are legislative changes that need to be made in order to ensure the same composition of products in the EU, or whether the current legislation just needs to be better enforced.

The whole debate about the quality of food is an emotional one, however the trust of consumers in products is paramount for producers, traders and retailers in the EU. According to them, the composition of products might slightly vary in different countries of the EU, but that is only given by specific conditions on the market and it does not decrease the quality of the final products in any way. In certain cases, different composition is caused by the varying preferences of consumers across the EU.