. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/191 
14 April 2008 
 (08-1719) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:    
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2299 8043 E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu
 
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [  X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:         
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):   Labelling requirements 
applicable to all foods         
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Proposal for a 
Regulation of the European Parliament a nd of the Council on the provision of food 
information to consumers (COM(2008) 40 final), (84 pages, in English, French and Spanish 
and all the other official languages of the European Communities). 
6. Description of content:    
Proposal to update and repeal the existing general labelling rules, including nutrition 
labelling applying to all foods. The proposal restructures and consolidates the existing legislation and introduces definitions, general pr inciples on the provision of information and 
the responsibilities of food business operators in relation to the provision of food 
information to consumers particularly through food labelling.  
Mandatory labelling requirements are not cha nged from the existing rules except for the 
introduction of a mandatory nutrition declaration on the majority of processed foods.The proposal introduces the mandatory nutrition declaration of energy, fat, saturates, 
carbohydrates, with specific reference to sugars , and salt in the principal field of view. The 
proposal allows for the development of best practice in the presentation of nutrition 
information, including alternative forms of  expression of the nutrition information in 
relation to overall daily nutrient requireme nts or graphical forms of presentation.
The proposal clarified the rules applying to th e declaration of country of origin or place of G/TBT/N/EEC/191 
Page 2  
 
  provenance of a food.  Such labelling is voluntary,  but if the failure to give such information 
might mislead the consumer, the labelling b ecomes mandatory. Criteria are introduced for 
the declaration of country of origin or place of provenance of multi-ingredient products and 
the country of origin or place of provenance of meat, other than beef and veal. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Consolidation, recasting and updating of the EC legisla tion covered by Directive 
2000/13/EC of the European Parliament a nd the Council of 20 March 2000 on the 
approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs (OJ L 109, 06.05.2 000 p.29, Directive as last amended by 
Commission Directive 2007/68/EC OJ L 310, 28.11.2007, p. 11) and Council Directive 90/496/EEC of 24 September 1990 on nutrition labelling for foodstuffs 
(OJ L 276, 6.10.1990, p.40 as last amended by Commission Directive 2003/120/EC OJ L 
333, 20.12.2003, p. 51). 
8. Relevant documents:   The text of the Proposal for a Regulation of the European 
Parliament and of the Council on the provisi on of food information to consumers 
(COM(2008) 40 final) is available on the following webpage:http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/labellingnutrition/ foodlabelling/proposed_legislation_en.htm 
9. Proposed date of adoption: 
 Proposed date of entry into force:    Earliest date of adoption 2009 
Entry into force 20 days after date of adoption 
10. Final date for comments:   90 days from date of notification 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [    ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:   
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  + (32) 2299 8043 
E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
 
The text is available on the EC-TBT Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/   
 and at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex UriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0040:FIN:EN:PDF
 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex UriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0040:FIN:FR:PDF  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/Lex UriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0040:FIN:ES:PDF  
and at: http://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2008/tbt/eec/08_1093_00_e.pdf