The Draft Law Defines the Requirements for the Mandatory Information about Food Products

The Ministry of Health of Ukraine published the draft law “On the information about food products for consumers” on its website for public discussion.

The draft law defines the requirements for the information about food products and the obligations of manufacturers, sellers (suppliers) to provide the required information to the consumers.

The draft provides that the information about food products must be accurate, clear and accessible to consumers. The draft law also contains the exhaustive list of information that must be specified for separate food products:

• name of the product;
• list of ingredients;
• any processing ingredients or additional materials;
• quantitative definition of separate ingredients or categories of ingredients;
• net amount of the product;
• the expiry date for the minimum period of use of a food product , or the “best before” date;
• special conditions for storage and/or use (if necessary);
• country or place of origin;
• nutrition value information;
• method of use (if the use of a food product will be complicated without such information);
• information about alcohol content;
• lot number;
• genetically modified organisms in the product if their share exceeds 0.9 percent for each food product ingredient comprising, consisting or produced from genetically modified organisms

The draft law also determines the requirements for the manufacturer (supplier) and/or seller regarding the placement of mandatory information (contents and volumes defined) on packaging, in particular by special markings, adding supporting materials to the products, or in any other way. For unpacked food products, the list of which shall be determined separately in the Annex to the Law, it is mandatory to provide the information about possible allergic reactions and/or intolerance in case of consumption of such products, and the list of substances that can trigger such reaction or intolerance.

The draft law proposed to define the requirements for food product names. In particular, the name of a food product can only contain the names of the products it contains. The same requirement applies to the commercial product names (brand names).

For certain categories of products, there is an additional requirement to label the country of origin. The list of such products must be defined separately by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

In case of its approval, the Law will enter into force on January 1, 2018, except the provisions on the obligatory labelling of the country of origin for certain categories of products that will be effective from January 1, 2020.

The adoption of this law will facilitate the establishment of common unified requirements for manufacturers, suppliers and sellers for the mandatory information about food products for consumers, with detailed requirements by information types. Such definition of the “game rules” will improve the protection of consumer rights, and provide food market operators with better understanding of the range of responsibilities and their fulfilment.