Tag: EU
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U.S., EU Announce Organic Trade Partnership
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced a “historic new partnership” with the European Union that recognizes its organic standards as essentially equivalent to those administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Effective June 1, 2012, the trade agreement will allow organic products certified by EU or USDA officials to be…
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Tobias Teufer, “GMO-Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003 and Honey: How to Proceed,” European Food & Feed Law Review, 2011
This article considers how those marketing honey in the European Union (EU) may proceed after the European Court of Justice in September 2011 determined that honey with trace amounts of pollen from genetically modified (GM) corn must undergo a full safety authorization before it can be sold to consumers. Highly critical of the court’s opinion,…
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European Commission Issues Animal Welfare Strategy
The European Commission recently released a new animal welfare strategy designed to close gaps in the current laws and remedy a lack of uniform enforcement. According to a January 20, 2012, press release, the strategy ultimately aims to (i) provide consumers with more information about “what animal-welfare claims made on product labels really mean,” (ii)…
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European Parliament Vetoes Food Labeling Changes
The European Parliament has reportedly vetoed a European Commission (EC) proposal that would have permitted reformulated food products to display “percent less” claims pertaining to their fat, salt and sugar contents. According to a February 2, 2012, press release, the rejected changes to Annex of EC Regulation 1924/2006 “would have allowed, for example, a ‘15% less…
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EU Urged to Limit Livestock Transportation
A petition reportedly signed by more than one million citizens has urged the European Union (EU) to impose stricter rules on the transportation of livestock intended for slaughter. Initiated by World Horse Welfare, the petition challenged current EU regulations allowing transportation times to exceed 24 hours and instead requested an eight-hour maximum on all such…
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European Parliament Adopts Tighter Controls of Antibiotic Use in Livestock Farming
The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution calling for a ban on most uses of antibiotics in livestock. Noting that “superbugs” take the lives of approximately 25,000 people in Europe each year, the non-binding resolution urges the European Commission (EC) to “make legislative proposals to phase out the prophylactic use of antibiotics in livestock farming.”…
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EU Member States Endorse Stronger Measures to Prevent Dioxin Contamination in Food, Feed
The European Commission (EC) has reportedly endorsed proposed safety measures aimed at better preventing dioxin contamination in animal food and feed. Prompted by a widespread investigation into an outbreak of the toxin that struck German meat and egg farms in late 2010, the draft regulation will be sent to the European Parliament and the European…
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EC Adopts “Nanomaterial” Definition
The European Commission (EC) has adopted a recommendation defining “nanomaterials” as materials “whose main constituents have a dimension of between 1 and 100 billionth of a meter.” According to an October 18, 2011, press release, this definition considers only “the size of the constituent particles of a material, rather than hazard or risk.” As such,…