Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 230/4

29 July 2013

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 604/2013

European Union (EU)* : Labelling of Foods and Food Ingredients

The European Commission (the Commission) has adopted a Regulation to amend Regulation (EC) No 608/2004 concerning the labelling of foods and food ingredients with added phytosterols, phytosterol esters, phytostanols and/or phytostanol esters. Details are set out in Commission Regulation (EU) No 718/2013, which can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:201:0049:0050:EN:PDF

DETAILS

2.Regulation (EC) No 608/2004 provides that the labelling of foods and food ingredients with added phytosterols, phytosterol esters, phytostanols and/or phytostanol esters shall contain a statement that the product is intended exclusively for people who want to lower their blood cholesterol level. However, there are various other voluntary inclusion of nutrition or health claims on food labels that could potentially lead consumers who do not need to control their blood cholesterol level to use the product. Therefore, to ensure consistency of the information provided on the labelling of the concerned foods and food ingredients, it is appropriate to amend the mandatory statement set out in Regulation (EC) No 608/2004 to ensure its wording serve adequately the informative purpose for which it was initially introduced.

3.The Regulation shall enter into force on 15 August 2013. In order to enable food business operators to adapt the labelling of their products to the newly-introduced requirements, the concerned food and food ingredients placed on market or labelled prior to 15 February 2014 which do not comply with the requirements of this Regulation maybe marketed until the stocks of the foods are exhausted.

ENQUIRIES

4.For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5556.

Yours faithfully,
 

(Miss Anita WONG)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

*The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.