Legislation

On this page we aim to provide helpful food legislation advice and links to relevant documents. Contact us with any questions you may have about current or impending European or UK legislation. There is some useful information contained in the documents below.

Traceability

There is a clearly defined responsibility for traceability in European Regulation 178/2002, contained in Articles 18 (traceability) and 19 (food business responsibilities for product withdrawals and recalls). Click this link to see the Regulation: EU Regulation 178/2002 on the general principles and requirements of food law in the European Union.

European Regulation 1830/2003 defines requirements for the traceability of genetically modified organisms in foodstuffs. Article 4 contains details on traceability and labelling requirements. Click this link to see EU Regulation 1830/2003.

Food Labelling

The most significant recent change in food legislation was the coming into force of EU Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers.  This is a consolidation of food labelling requirements which included the amendment of EC Regulations 1924/2006 and 1925/2006 on nutrition and health claims, the repeal of EEC Directive 90/496/on nutrition labelling and the repeal of Directive 2000/13 as the major legislation on the labelling, presentation and advertising of foods.

Regulation 1169/2011 brings together the requirements for food labelling, with clear guidance of what and how information must be presented, including its legibility.  Key details include the presentation of allergen information in ingredients lists, and the compulsory display of nutrition labelling with effect from 13 December 2016.

Click here to access Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers

ProdTrac software can assist food businesses to meet the above legal requirements:

• It can automatically compute the ingredients list for a product, taking into account multiple stages of manufacture
• It will include and highlight the presence of any allergens in a product’s ingredients
• It will automatically calculate the nutrition profile of a product using the nutritional values of its raw materials
• It can provide an almost instantaneous summary of the traceability of any raw materials or products. This information is invaluable for timely decision making in the event of a food incident or product recall.