17:58 04.02.2019

Poroshenko enacts food labeling law

2 min read
Poroshenko enacts food labeling law

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on February 4 signed the law providing consumers with information about food products (No. 8450), according to the Ukrainian parliament's website.

"This law will ensure a high level of protection of the health and interests of consumers by providing all the necessary information for consumers to make a conscious choice of food products and introduce the responsibility of market operators responsible for information about food products, for misleading consumers," Deputy Head of the parliament's agrarian committee, Member of Parliament Oleksandr Bakumenko (the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction) said on his Facebook page.

According to him, bill No. 8450 was developed in accordance with the Comprehensive Implementation Strategy of Chapter IV "Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. This document is aimed at bringing Ukrainian legislation in accordance with the provisions of EU Regulation No. 1169/2011 of October 25 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers.

As reported, on December 6, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a bill in second reading and in general to regulate the procedure for labeling food products and imposing fines for providing false information on packaging, titled "On Information for Consumers on Food Products."

Some 231 lawmakers voted for the corresponding decision.

The law provides for informing consumers about the content of food additives, auxiliary substances used in processing and other substances or products that may cause allergic reactions or intolerance.

The document establishes a requirement to provide the consumer with information on whether a food product has been defrosted, given that freezing and subsequent defrosting of certain products limit their future use and may affect their safety, taste and physical qualities.

The law also cancels the requirement under which the producer provides nutritional information with respect to certain categories of food products that have not been processed or for which nutritional information is not a determining factor for consumers to make purchasing decisions or whose packaging area is too small to contain all details.

Violation of the requirements of the law by providing inaccurate, misleading information about a product, change by a market operator of necessary information about the product entails a fine on legal entities in the amount of 15 sums of the minimum wage, while a fine for individual entrepreneurs is set at 10 sums of the minimum wage.

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