. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/CHE/106 
15 December 2008  
 (08-6137) 
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:  SWITZERLAND
  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  Federal Office of Public Health, Berne 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and web-site 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :  State Secretariat 
for Economic Affairs, Non-tariff Measures Divison, Effingerstrasse 1, CH-3003 Berne, 
tbt@seco.admin.ch 
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):  Food. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft revision of the  
Ordinance of the Federal Department of Home  Affairs on food labelli ng and advertising of 
foods (8 pages, available in French and German).  
6. Description of content:  The following provisions have been amended: 
Art. 26/Art. 29c: Definition of the signifi cant amount for vitamins, minerals and other 
substances (15 % of the recommended daily allo wance). In the EU the significant amount is 
only regulated for vitamins and minerals. 
Appendix 1: This appendix has been adap ted to Commission Directive 2007/68/EC of 
27 November 2007 amending Annex IIIa to Di rective 2000/13/EC (adaptation to new 
scientific developments in the EU). A list is given of those ingredients which must always be 
stated in order to minimise the risk of allergies. The exemptions from the obligation to provide this declaration have been redefined.  Switzerland has adopted the whole of Annex 
IIIa. An exception from this is peanut oil contaminants, which have been exempted in 
Switzerland for some years, based on scientific data.  
Appendix 7: There are amendments, first fo llowing the EC corrigendum of 28 March 2008 
concerning fibre (Corrigendum to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 of the European Parliament 
and the Council of 20 December 2006 on nutriti on and health claims made on food), and 
secondly on account of the above definition of  significant amount an d other substances. 
Appendix 8: Base-producing (i.e. non-acid producing) food supplements will now be 
regulated in Art. 22 of the FDHA Ordinance on special foods (SR 817.022.104). According to 
the legislation that is currently applicable, auth orisations will include authorisation of health-
related advertising. Since the regulations on this  food have been modified , the advertising that 
had been authorised now has to be included in Appendix 8. G/TBT/N/CHE/106 
Page 2  
 
  7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Health and consumer protection.  
8. Relevant documents:    
Ordinance of the Federal Department of Home  Affairs on food labelling and advertising of 
foods of 23rd November 2005 (RS 817. 022.21); German/F rench/Italian: 
http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/8/817.022.21.fr.pdf  
Ordinance on food and basic commoditi es of 23rd November 2005 (RS 817.02); 
German/French/Italian: http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/8/817.02.fr.pdf  
Food Law of 9th October 1992 (RS 817.0); German/Fre nch/Italian: 
http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/8/817.0.fr.pdf   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:      Mid March 2009 
  1 April 2009 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days after the date of notification 
11. Text available from: National enquiry po int [ X], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addres ses, if available of the other body:    
Internet address: 
http://www.bag.admin.ch/themen/lebensmittel/04865/05022/05412/05463/index.html?lang=de   
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2008/tbt/che/08_3923_00_f.pdf  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2008/tbt/che/08_3923_00_x.pdf