FLIS, Food Labeling Information System, is the European database on food labeling funded by the European Commission. Long awaited by consumers and agribusiness operators, it disappoints expectations. And it raises some questions.
European Commission, commendable goals
According to the European Commission, the Food Labeling Information System (FLIS)‘will provide a user-friendly IT solution, allowing its users to select a food and then automatically retrieve mandatory European labeling claims in 23 EU languages.’
The database, the Community Executive continues, ”is designed to help food business operators (FBOs) identify mandatory labeling claims that should appear on their products. It aims to improve the proper implementation of relevant legislation by FBOs (Food Business Operators, ed.) and facilitate the work of national law enforcement authorities. It will also help provide clear information to consumers and help them make informed food choices‘. (1)
FLIS, from the stars to the stables
In spite of the presentation, the database severely disappoints expectations. Resolving into a matrix of the mandatory information required by reg. EU 1169/11, with references to some vertical European regulations (i.e., applied to individual supply chains or food categories) that have not even been updated. (2) With a food category approach that completely disregards horizontal regulations (e.g., nutrition and health claims, food improvement agents package, etc.).
SMEs forgotten since the Lisbon Strategy (AD 2000), professionals and regulators lose all hope, in the bad copy of a serious database like the one offered in Italy by Alimenta Lex. Compiling a label referring to FLIS in its current conception is virtually impossible, as well as dangerous as will be seen.
FLIS FLOP, danger of falling
The total absence of references to applicable national and local regulations in the 27 member states is FLIS’s most serious shortcoming. Which goes FLOP, in venturing to mention 87 different categories of foods without even warning of the absolute necessity of checking any legislative, regulatory and administrative measures established in the places where the products are distributed.
The domestic market does not exist, as the writer (Dongo) has been denouncing for some 20 years. And the risks of incurring administrative and criminal charges, as well as civil liability actions and reputational damage, are real. Ignorantia legis non excusat.
Three-year delay, unacceptable shortcomings
The FLIS project, it is worth mentioning, was announced in March 2016 with a view to its publication in the second half of 2017. Since the FLOP was carried out with public resources, someone in Brussels must account for the three-year delay, as well as for work that was completely unnecessary in relation to the goals set. (3)
The deficiencies are unacceptable. Just look at the entry for ‘beer,’ Belgium’s national drink. To note a couple of state regulations completely ignored by FLIS-flop:
– in France it has been mandatory since 2006, due to public health protection requirements, to include a warning on the label advising against its consumption during pregnancy, (4)
– in Italy, in order to ensure the quality of production and correct information to the consumer, since 1962 the requirements that various beers must meet in order to be designated as such have been defined. (5)
Work to (re)do
The idea of a public database – on the standards to be applied, at EU and member state level, to consumer information on food products – was proposed by the writer (Dongo) to then Director General of DG Sanco Paola Testori Coggi. In 2004, as a result of a compilation of EU and Italian standards that could have been a model approach. (6)
‘Under the coordination of the European Commission, both the common rules (EEC, EC, EU) and those that belong to the so-called concurrent legislation, of state and local levels (regions, provinces, municipalities), where applicable, must be collected.’ (3,6)
This work is indispensable to millions of operators in the EU, from farm to fork, and needs to be (re)done by competent contractors. The European Commission must also involve member states, which must submit consolidated texts of local rules additional to the common law, in English as well as in their own language. With burden of maintaining up-to-date databases of national standards under penalty of inapplicability. (7)
Dario Dongo and Marta Strinati
On the cover drawing by Marcel de la Gare, http://dessinacteurs.org/index.html
Notes
1) Commission launches IT tool on food labeling, e-News 21.12.20 https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/sante/newsletter-specific-archive-issue.cfm?newsletter_service_id=327&lang=default
Food Labelling Information System https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/labelling_nutrition/labelling_legislation_en/food_labelling_information_system/start/select-language
2) It refers, for example, to reg. EC 110/08, for spirits, instead of reg. EU 2019/787, which has already repealed it in part, with full application as of 25.5.21
3) Dario Dongo. Food Labeling Information System, the official database on labeling rules. FARE(Food and Agriculture Requirements). 30.3.16 l, https://www.foodagriculturerequirements.com/approfondimenti_1/food-labelling-information-system-il-database-ufficiale-sulle-regole-di-etichettatura
4) Decree 2.10.06. Mandatory information on all alcoholic beverages, 6 thousand euro fine in case of violations. SEE https://solidarites-sante .gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/questions_reponses-2.pdf
5) The requirements for beers under Law 1354/92 now apply to regulate their usual name, following repeal of Leg. 109/92. Not therefore to be overlooked. V. https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/etichette/birra-italiana-nuove-norme
(6) Dario Dongo. Labels and advertising, principles and rules. Edagricole-Il Sole 24 Ore, Bologna, 2004
(7) A reference to reg. EU 1169/2011, article 45, and EU dir. 2015/1535/EU
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
