Because of the COVID Pandemic, the enforcement of the European Regulatory Framework for the organics sector has been postponed until January 1st 2022. The implementation of many initiatives have also been delayed.  However, the EU Commission has recently published ones on inspection certificates and official controls. Organic products – imports from non-EU countries (inspection certificate & official controls) (europa.eu) Organic products – imports from non-EU countries (rules for EU countries & operators) (europa.eu) Rules on …

Earlier this year, the UK Prime Minister asked former ministers Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, Theresa Villiers MP, and George Freeman MP to identify how the UK can take advantage of its new-found regulatory freedoms and stimulate growth, innovation and competition across the economy and level up across the United Kingdom. The report of this Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGRR) has recently been issued. The report covers sector proposals on agri-environmental innovation,…

The legal vagueness surrounding CBD is gradually resolving in France. The Court of Cassation recently rendered a judgment in the context of an appeal concerning the legality of the sale of CBD-based products in a specialist store in Dijon.  (French read only: Arrêt n°655 du 4 juin 2021 (21-81.656) – Cour de cassation – Assemblée plénière – ECLI:FR:CCASS:2021:AP00 | Cour de cassation) While the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) established last…

An interesting study has recently been issued by the European Commission. The study confirms that the findings of the 2007-2008 evaluation on the production and marketing of plant reproductive material are still valid. However, it also finds that the current GMO legislation is not fit for purpose in terms of new techniques that alter the genome of an organism (new genomic techniques or NGTs). The findings of the study suggests that NGTs could make plants…

Having voted 7 months earlier in favour of banning descriptive terms as ‘buttery’ and ‘creamy’ for purely plant-based products, the European Parliament withdrew draft legislation (the famous Amendment 171). Implications of Amendment 171 were that the following would be prohibited: Familiar packaging formats like a carton for plant-based milk alternatives, or a block of plant margarine; Visual depictions of plant-based foods if they could be judged as “evoking” or “imitating” dairy – for example, an…

The EU Commission confirmed EFSA’s scientific opinion and authorizes the first edible insect, dried yellow mealworm, to be placed on the European market. The authorisation will provide for the product to be sold in whole, dried form or to be used as an ingredient in other foods and is the first authorisation of its kind. This development is highly topical as sustainability concerns have caused consumers and manufacturers to pay increasing attention to the use…

The EFSA recently gave its updated conclusions on the titanium dioxide (E171) food additive. The results were a reassessment of the EFSA’s safety conclusions which were published on June 28, 2016 (which were themselves a reassessment of the EFSA’s original 2009 assessment). The most recent appraisal took into consideration new data that have been discovered or made available since 2016. The EFSA’s most recent conclusions came as something of a surprise: the Agency has some…