The marketing of fishery products – that is, all marine or freshwater animals (with the exception of live bivalve molluscs, live echinoderms, live tunicates and live marine gastropods and all mammals, reptiles and frogs), wild or breeding, as well as all forms, parts and edible products of such animals (1) – is subject to specific information to economic operators and consumers, additional compared to the general rules. An in-depth look.
1) Food Information Regulation (EU) No 1169/11
Food Information Regulation (EU) No 1169/11 (2) (FIR) establishes the criteria and general information requirements to be transferred to economic operators and consumers, as well as to communities equivalent to the latter, in relation to the generality of foods. In this regard it is worth pointing out that:
– the list of mandatory information on pre-packaged products, established in Article 9 of the FIR, is subject to derogations (amendments and additions) established by other applicable EU and national regulations, with regard to both vertical standards (i.e. applicable to the generality of products, under certain circumstances (e.g. nutrition and health claims), and to vertical standards that apply to individual categories of food (i.e. fishery products) (3)
– information relating to foods sold loose and pre-wrapped, as well as those provided by communities to consumers, are in turn subject to vertical regulations (i.e fishery products, fruit and vegetables), as well as national legislation, the latter of which is subject to the single general requirement of indication of the presence of allergens referred to in Annex II to the FIR
– mandatory and voluntary information can be transmitted through labels (or tapes and bands that accompany the food), commercial documents that precede or accompany the delivery (in transactions between operators, B2B), signs displayed near the food on sale in the state loose (i.e. pre-wrapped for direct sale), menus and registers, including electronic ones (for information from communities).
2) Fishery products, additional information for operators and consumers
Specific provisions of information to economic operators and consumers, as regards fishery products, are established in the fisheries CMO (EU Reg. No 1379/2013), (4) Reg. (EC) No 2406/96 (5) , Reg. (EC) n. 1224/2009 (6) and its Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011. (7) In 2023 the European Commission published a report on the state of implementation of the fisheries CMO, (8) as well as a pocket guide on the labeling of fishery and aquaculture products (9) with a specific section dedicated to ‘questions and answers’. (10,11)
2.1) Fisheries CMO
Fishery and aquaculture products CMO (common market organization) or fishing CMO, Reg. (EU) No 1379/2013 provides additional information compared to that provided by the FIC Regulation. It prescribes that the marketing to consumers and communities of fishery products, including fresh or chilled fish (but excluding fish fillets and other fish meat) (12,13) - regardless of the origin and marketing method – must be accompanied by the following information, via appropriate marks or labels, or commercial documents: (14, 15, 16, 17)
- commercial name of the species and its scientific name (18)
- production method (e.g. ‘caught’, ‘freshwater caught’, ‘farmed’)
- catch area (19) or farming and category of fishing gear used (20)
- ‘thawed’, where appropriate, (21) except in cases where freezing constitutes a necessary technological phase of the production process (22)
- best before date, ‘where appropriate’ (ie frozen products).
2.2) CMO fishing, voluntary information
Voluntary information provided for by Reg. (EU) n. 1379/2013 concern:
– date of capture of fishery products or harvesting of aquaculture products
– date and port of disembarkation (23)
– more detailed information on the type of fishing gear (24)
– in the case of fishery products caught at sea, information on the flag State of
fishing boat
– environmental information
– ethical and/or social information
– information on production techniques and practices
– nutritional declaration.
2.3) Regulation (EC) 2406/96
Reg. (EC) No 2406/96 in turn establishes common marketing standards for certain fishery products, including unprocessed products, as defined in its article. 3.
These rules concern:
– freshness categories, defined for fish in Extra, A, B, based on the requirements defined in Annex I.
The freshness category must be indicated in legible and indelible characters with a minimum height of 5 cm, on labels affixed to the batches (i.e. fish boxes);
– caliber, defined on the basis of the weight or number of units per kg, as well as the criteria set out in Annex II. The size category and method of presentation must be indicated in legible and indelible characters, with a minimum height of 5 cm, on labels affixed to the consignments.
The indication clearly visible and perfectly legible net weight in kilograms is affixed to each consignment. For lots marketed in standardized crates, the indication of the net weight is not necessary if the weighing carried out before marketing shows that the content of the crates corresponds to that presumed expressed in kg.
Products coming from third countries in turn they bear the clearly visible and perfectly legible indication of:
- Country of origin, in Latin characters with a minimum height of 20 mm
- scientific and commercial name of the species
- way of presentation
- freshness category and caliber category
- net weight in kg of the products contained in the packaging
- classification date and shipping date
- name and address of the consignor. (25)
3) Traceability of fishery and aquaculture products
The traceability of all batches of fishing and aquaculture products – at all stages of the supply chain, from fishing and sorting to retail sale (26) – is guaranteed through the information required by Reg. (EC) no. 1224/09.
The operators (27) must in fact have systems and procedures aimed at identifying the suppliers of consignments (28) of fishery and aquaculture products, and the operators to whom the products have been supplied, in order to provide this information to the competent authorities that they request it. The information to be included in the labeling concerns: (29, 30)
– identification number of each batch (31)
– identification number and name of the fishing vessel or name of the aquaculture production unit
– FAO alpha 3 code of each species (32)
– date of catches or date of production (33)
– quantities of each species in kg of net weight or, where appropriate, number of individuals
in cases where fish are smaller than the relevant minimum reference size for the
conservation are present in the quantities referred to in letter e), in a separate entry, the quantities of each species expressed in kilograms of net weight or the number of individuals
name and address of suppliers (34)
– consumer information provided for in Article 35 of Regulation (EU) No. 1379/2013. (35)
3.1) Implementation rules
The methods of application of the provisions for the traceability and labeling of fishery and aquaculture products referred to in Reg. (EC) No 1224/2009 are defined in Implementing Regulation (EU) No 404/2011. In extreme summary:
– i ‘fishery and aquaculture products’ are defined as ‘all products referred to in chapter 3, in subheading 1212 21 00 of chapter 12 and in headings 1604 and 1605 36 of chapter 16 of the combined nomenclature established by Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87′ (37, 38)
– the information required by Reg. (EC) no. 1224/2009 must be provided on the label or packaging of the batch, or on the commercial document that physically accompanies the batch (39, 40)
– the aforementioned information can be affixed to the matches using an identification tool such as a code, a barcode, an electronic chip or similar device (e.g. RFID) or a marking system. Information affixed to consignments must remain available throughout all stages of production, processing and distribution, so as to allow it to be shared with the competent authorities of the Member States.
The expected identification mark by Reg. (EC) No 853/2004, following the adoption of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1141, must be updated with the acronym ‘EU’ (or ‘EU’, based on the official language adopted in the individual States Member States) in place of the abbreviation ‘CE’ (or ‘EC’), by 31 December 2028. (41)
4) Provisional conclusions
European regulations mentioned above, although adopted with different objectives, overlap in various parts in their application implications. An updated summary of their requirements could simplify the activities of supply chain operators and authorities responsible for official controls.
Dario Dongo and Andrea Adelmo Della Penna
Footnotes
(1) Regulation (EC) no. 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 29 April 2004, establishing specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2004/853/oj
(2) Regulation (EU) no. 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 25 October 2011, relating to the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations (EC) No. 1924/2006 and (EC) n. 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repeals Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Parliament Directive 2000/13/EC European Union and Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Regulation (EC) No. 608/2004 of the Commission.
http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/1169/oj (last update: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/1169/2018-01-01)
(3) Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011, article 10
(4) Regulation (EU) no. 1379/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, relating to the common organization of the markets in the sector of fishery and aquaculture products. Consolidated text as of 25.4.20 http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2013/1379/2020-04-25
(5) Regulation (EC) no. 2406/96 of the Council of 26 November 1996 establishing common marketing standards for certain fishery products. Consolidated text as of 2.6.05
http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/1996/2406/2005-06-02
(6) Regulation (EC) no. 1224/2009 of the Council, of 20 November 2009, establishing a Union control regime to ensure compliance with the rules of the common fisheries policy. Consolidated text as of 9.1.24 http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2009/1224/2024-01-09
(7) Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 404/2011 of the Commission, of 8 April 2011, laying down methods of application of Regulation (EC) no. 1224/2009 of the Council establishing a community control regime to ensure compliance with the rules of the common fisheries policy. Consolidated text as of 14.7.20
http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2011/404/2020-07-14)
(8) Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. The implementation of Regulation (EU) no. 1379/2013 on the common organization of the markets in the sector of fishery and aquaculture products (COM/2023/101 final).
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52023DC0101
(9) European Commission. A pocket guide to the EU’s new fish and aquaculture consumer labels. Publications Office of the European Union, ISBN 978-92-79-43893-6, https://doi.org/10.2771/86800
(11) According to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), only the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has jurisdiction over the legal interpretation of Community law. Therefore, the Commission documents are to be understood as “guidelines” in the implementation of the reference regulatory provisions.
(12) Referred to in combined nomenclature entry 0304.
(13) See Annex I, letter a) of the reg. (EU) no. 1379/2013.
(14) See art. 35, par. 1 of the reg. (EU) no. 1379/2013.
(15) For non-prepacked fishery and aquaculture products, mandatory information may be provided for retail sale via commercial information such as billboards or posters
(16) Where a mixture of identical species the production method of which is different is offered for sale to the final consumer or to a mass caterer, the production method of each batch must be indicated. When a mixture of identical species whose capture areas or breeding countries are different is offered for sale to the final consumer or to a community, at least the area of the quantitatively most representative batch must be indicated, with the warning that the product also comes from ‘it, when it comes to a fishery product, from different capture areas and, when it comes to farmed products, from different countries
(17) The possibility of exemption from these requirements by Member States is foreseen only for ‘small quantities’ of products sold directly from the fishing vessel to the consumer which do not exceed a value of 50 euros per day.
(18) The decree of 22 September 2017 – Attribution of names in Italian to fish species of commercial interest (https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2017/11/14/17A07599/sg) contains the names in Italian of the fish species present in Annex 1. The list is also present on the European Commission website for the ‘Commercial names of fishery and aquaculture products’ (see https://fish-commercial-names.ec.europa.eu/fish-names/home_it). For the scientific denomination of the fish species present in Annex 1, the denominations indicated, as synonyms, in the FishBase information system and in the ASFIS database are also compliant.
(19) Fisheries products caught at sea may be indicated with the FAO fishing area code on a voluntary basis. The mandatory information concerns the name of the catch area and, for products coming from the North-East Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea, the sub-area or division, together with a name easy to understand for the consumer, a map or a pictogram (e.g. caught in the western Mediterranean + Tyrrhenian Sea/map/pictogram). Wild freshwater products must have the body of water and country of capture indicated (e.g. caught in freshwater in Tiefer See, Germany)
(20) As provided for in the first column of Annex III of the Reg. (EU) no. 1379/2013. If the batch consists of products caught with different fishing gear, they must be fully defined on the labelling.
(21) The term ‘defrosted’ does not apply: a) to ingredients present in the finished product; b) foods for which freezing constitutes a technologically necessary phase of the production process; (c) fishery and aquaculture products previously frozen for health safety reasons, in accordance with Annex III, section VIII, of Regulation (EC) no. 853/2004; (d) fishery and aquaculture products which have been thawed before being subjected to smoking, salting, cooking, marinating, drying or a combination of any of them these processes
(22) Reg. (EU) n. 1169/2011, Annex VI, part A, point 2, letter ‘b’
(23) It is possible to specify, for example, the name of the port where the fish was landed for the first time
(24) Reg. (EU) n. 1379/2013, Annex III, second column. It is also possible to indicate fishing techniques not listed (i.e. by hand or underwater)
(25) Reg. (EC) n. 2406/96, article 4, paragraphs 1 and 2; article 5.2; article 7.1; Article 8, paragraphs 1-3; article 11
(26) Reg. (EC) n. 1224/2009, art. 58, paragraphs 1-3
(27) Operator: natural or legal person who manages or owns an enterprise carrying out activities related to any of the stages of production, processing, marketing, distribution and retailing of fishery and aquaculture products
(28) Lot: quantity of fishery and aquaculture products of a given species of the same presentation coming from the same relevant geographical area and from the same fishing vessel, or group of fishing vessels, or from the same aquaculture production unit
(29) Reg. (EC) n. 1224/2009 art. 58, paragraphs 4 and 5
(30) The information listed in points ‘a’ to ‘f’ does not apply to fishery and aquaculture products imported into the Union with catch certificates presented in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 1005/2008, which do not fall within the scope of application of the catch certificate pursuant to Article 12, paragraph 5 of the same regulation, and to
caught or farmed fishery and aquaculture products
(31) The information relating to the area where the product was caught or farmed is: a) the geographical area concerned, as defined in Article 4, point 30, of the Reg. (EC) n. 1224/2009, for catches of stocks or groups of stocks subject to a quota and/or a minimum size under Union legislation; b) the name of the capture area or production in accordance with Article 38(1) of Regulation (EU) No. 1379/2013 for catches of other stocks or groups of stocks, fishery products caught in fresh water and aquaculture products
(32) See https://www.fao.org/fishery/en/collection/asfis
(33) Catch date information may include multiple calendar days or a time period corresponding to multiple catch dates
(34) Supplier information concerns the operator’s direct supplier or suppliers. This information may be provided, where appropriate, by means of the identification marking referred to in Section I of Annex II to Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004
(35) Member States shall ensure that such information is available to the consumer at the retail stage
(36) The information requested does not apply to headings 1604 and 1605
(37) Regulation (EEC) no. 2658/87 of the Council of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and the common customs tariff. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/1987/2658/oj (latest consolidated version currently in
force: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/1987/2658/2024-01-01)
(38) Reg. (EU) n. 142/2011, art. 66
(39) Reg. (EU) n. 404/2011, art. 67.5
(40) When the information is provided by means of a commercial document which physically accompanies the consignment, the identification number must be affixed to the corresponding consignment
(41) Delegated Reg. (EU) 2024/1141, art. 2; Reg. (EC) n. 853/2004, Annex II, part B, point 8
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in Food Technologies and Biotechnologies, qualified food technologist, he follows the research and development area. With particular regard to European research projects (in Horizon 2020, PRIMA) where the FARE division of WIISE Srl, a benefit company, participates.
