Cannabidiol (‘CBD’) has burst onto the world stage in recent years, and the EU is no exception, with shops selling CBD products opening up in various countries across Europe. While CBD can be incorporated into cosmetics and used for medical uses, it is quickly gaining traction in the food and drink market, with CBD found in supplements, infused into teas and coffees, cocktails, confectionary and a variety of other edible items. Increased consumer demand is…

As ‘clean’ eating has become more desirable, food manufacturers have re-assessed how they are labelling their foods in a bid to boost the appeal of their products. This includes manufacturers replacing additives (‘E numbers’) with ‘natural’ ingredients that have the same function. It’s easy to understand the attractiveness of such a swap, but to be compliant in the eyes of the law, labelling functional ingredients must be considered from many angles. In an article for…

This article was first published by Food Navigator on August 22, 2019. The EU-Canada trade deal, which came into force on a temporary basis in 2017, is working its way through national legislators for approval. The controversial agreement raises a number of questions about labelling and transparency. Katia Merten-Lentz, partner at Keller and Heckman, takes a look at its implications for the meat sector. On 13 July, the French Parliament agreed on the adoption of…

On 15 May 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the elimination of industrially-produced trans-fatty acids from the global food supply and released draft guidelines on saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children. The draft guidelines suggest that adults and children reduce their intake of saturated fatty acids to less than 10% of total energy intake and their intake of trans-fatty acids to less than 1% of total energy intake.…

The blurred boundary between dyes and ingredients that can be used to add color to consumable products Ingredients that offer ‘natural’ coloring properties can present a tempting alternative to ‘chemical’ colorings for food manufacturers. For example, using ingredients such as turmeric or beetroot juice, can potentially bypass the need for ‘chemical’ yellow or pink dyes. However, the legal practicalities of using foods with naturally occurring pigments instead of dyes is complex. In our article for…

This article was first published in the World Food Regulation Review June Issue Vol. 29, Number 1 The 45th session of the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Labelling (CCFL45) succeeded in improving the proposed draft guidelines for countries and business operators on mandatory and voluntary labelling provisions for non-retail containers of food and food ingredients subject to business-to-business international trade, significantly enough so that it agreed to send it to the forthcoming July Codex Alimentarius…

The controversy surrounding the safety evaluations of glyphosate by public European bodies, in particular the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), has had its impact on the EU General Food Law reform, Katia Merten-Lentz, partner at Keller and Heckman, suggests. On June 13th, following the approval by the European Parliament on 17 April 2019, the Council formally adopted a new Regulation on the transparency and sustainability of the EU risk assessment in the food chain. The…