Italian transparency about the origin of food bad for the EU

25 January 2018

The Italian government has considerably expanded the national rules for food labelling. Since 2016, dairy producers are obliged to mention the origin of their base materials. Last September the tomato processing industry followed suit and from February 2018 the rules also count for pasta and rice producers.
FoodDrinkEurope (FDE) has registered an official complaint with the European Commission over Italy’s new country of origin labelling regulations. FDE considers the policy of the Italian government as protectionism, for example against the import of low-priced tomato purée from China. Italy has introduced the rules without notifying the European Union (EVMI, 20 December 2017).
Click here for the full news item (in Dutch).
Click here for an article about the complaint submitted by FoodDrinkEurope.

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