Nutrition & Health Claims, sanctions coming. On April 1, 2017, Legislative Decree 27/2017, laying down administrative penalties for violations of the rules on nutrition and health claims on food, comes into force
On April 1, 2017-after more than 10 years since theNutrition & Health Claims (NHC) regulation came into effect-the relevant sanctions finally come into effect in Italy.
On March 17 , Legislative Decree no. 27/2017 ‘Establishing Administrative Penalties for Violations of the Provisions on Nutrition and Health Claims in Regulation Reg. EC 1924/2006‘.
Primary responsibility for supervision is given to the health authority. (2) In line with the responsibilities assigned to the Department of Health on official public controls on food safety and the commercial information related to It. (3)
This does not exclude the concurrent jurisdiction of the IAP, (4) which intervenes in self-regulation on misleading advertising. And the Antitrust Authority (5), whose jurisdiction is rooted in the so-called Consumer Code, in relation to unfair business practices.
Nutrition & Health Claims, penalties for violating European rules
The sanction framework is based on administrative pecuniary and ancillary sanctions, (6) for violation of the general and specific principles established in the European regulations referred to below:
– reg. EC 1924/06 as amended, laying down general rules on the use of Nutrition & Health Claims in commercial food-related information,
– Annexed to the aforementioned regulation, regarding the exhaustive list of permitted nutrition claims (so-called nutrition claims), the conditions of use and related communication schemes,
– reg. EU 432/12 et seq. as supplemented, on health claims authorized by the European Commission, so-called health claims, following appropriate Efsa opinions. (7)
For an analysis of the decree
, see the article
http://www.foodagriculturerequirements.com/nutrition-health-claims-lavvocato-dario-dongo-illustra-il-decreto-sanzioni/
. For details, see also
http://www.foodagriculturerequirements.com/nutrition-health-claims-approfondimento-sul-decreto-sanzioni/#
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) For the text of the decree, see
http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/atto/serie_generale/caricaDettaglioAtto/originario?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=2017-03-17&atto.codiceRedazionale=17G00038&elenco30giorni=true
(2) Ministry of Health, autonomous regions and provinces, local health authorities
(3) See reg. EC 882/04, Article 2
(4) Institute of Advertising Self-Discipline.
(5) Competition and Market Authority. Cf. d.lgs. 145/07
(6) Such as the suspension of the activity within the scope of which the offense was committed, in the event of recurrence
(7) European Food Safety Authority
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
