Annual Conference on European Food Law

Early this week the Academy of European Law’s Annual Conference on Food Law took place on 5 and 6 May in Trier and offered a unique opportunity to receive an analysis of recent legislation, case law and ongoing policy developments in the field of food law (for an overview of the full programme, click here).

Key topics that were discussed during the conference:

• New EU rules on articles treated with biocidal products
• The Commission’s proposals on animal cloning and novel food
• Recent case law of the CJEU
• The legislative package for healthier animals and plants for a safer food chain: smarter rules for safer food
• The harmonisation of food standards and food safety measures within the framework of the World Trade Organisation

My talk discussed the Commission’s proposals on animal cloning and novel food. Novel foods are all foods that were not used for human consumption to a significant degree within the EU prior to 15 May 1997. An example is juice of an exotic fruit: noni juice. Currently novel foods are covered by Regulations 258/97 and 1852/2001. Novel foods, including food from cloned animals, are subject to pre-market approval, but obtaining market access under the current regime is a lengthy process that can take up 3 to 6 years. Therefore, between 2008 and 2011, a new proposal for a Novel Foods Regulation was published, but this proposal has never been adopted as concilliation failed in March 2011. One of the sensitive issues was food from cloned animals. In order to find a solution for this issue, the latest proposal for a Regulation on Novel Foods no longer covers such food.

Food from animal clones and animal cloning are now covered in two separate proposals:

(1) Directive on the cloning of animals of various species kept and reproduced for farming purposes

(2) Directive on the placing on the market of food from animal clones

These proposals will result in:

• A temporary ban on the imports of animal clones and a prohibition to place food from animal clones on the market
• A temporary ban on the use of cloning technique in the EU for farm animals

Download my slides and…

Do you want to learn more about the proposals? You can download my slides here! See you at the next ERA Annual Conference on European Food Law?