INSIGHTS

It’s a well-known fact that for a vast range of products, consumers nowadays like to shop online. This applies to alcoholic beverages as well. Reason enough for the Vereniging SlijtersUnie (a Dutch association which serves the interests of liquor stores) to research whether the online-sellers of alcohol have the required licenses to do so.

The product Heks’nkaas (literally translated: witches’ cheese, best described: a herb cream spread for bread) continues occupying the minds in the Dutch IP circles. In 2015 Levola, the producer of Heks’nkaas, started legal proceedings on copyright protection of the spread’s taste.

Once in a while, we are happy to give an overview of the latest food law related decisions of the Advertising Code Committee (“ACC”) , the self-regulatory institution in the Netherlands. We also refer to issue 2015/6, in which we gave an overview of the most important FIC-Regulation related decisions in 2015.

Market Food Group is proprietor of the figurative trademark ‘Bakkerij ’t Stoepje’. The company is known for their big yellow trucks with red letters. MFG delivers confectionery (including bread) to franchisees and other parties. For the biggest part these other parties consist of market traders.

After all the commotion about the ‘Blue tick’ (“conscious choice”), the ‘Green tick’s little brother (“healthier choice”), the foundation ‘I Choose Conciously’ decided that as of 1 August of this year the Blue tick is no longer permitted on ‘products with children’s marketing’.

In the Albert Heijn TV commercial for bread with the ‘Broodnodig’ label, baker Patrick proudly proclaims that his fresh bread contains only the essentials. The complainant is angry because he has discovered on the label that the multigrain bread also contains dextrose, and that is not essential.

The recent Court of Justice ruling Innova Vital gives us another (future) classic: the strict rules in the Claims Regulation are also applicable to commercial communication from food businesses to healthcare professionals.

Allergen-free, what does that actually mean? That was what crossed the minds of the complainants when they saw the claims (100%) allergen-free tomato and vegetable soup and allergen-free meat on the internet. The complainants took this case to the Advertising Code Authority (RCC).

Almost a year after the Teekanne judgment a Dutch version followed: Heks’nkaas. The NVWA was of the opinion that the name Heks’nkaas suggests that the product is “a type of cheese” and is therefore misleading with regard to the composition of the product.

Are Goody Good Stuff sweets better or healthier than other sweets? The website says that they contain only natural flavourings and colourings. A complainant at the Advertising Code Committee (ACC) thinks the name Goody Good Stuff is misleading.

It has been quite a turbulent year for food law. After the important Teekanne-judgment on packaging and consumer deception the European Court of Justice delivers an interesting judgment: Innova Vital. We do not need a crystal ball to predict that you will be hearing this name a lot more in the future.

What should a food company do if it suspects that a food product is possibly unsafe? Rules on necessary action taken by food companies are provided by Article 19 of the General Food Law Regulation (178/2002).

Last week, at the 7th International Fresenius Conference in Frankfurt (Mainz), Sarah Arayess lectured on “Health Claims and Functional Ingredients”. Sarah expanded on the rules applicable to food advertising on social media.

In our NEWS 2015-4, we already wrote about the strict position of the Advertising Code Commission (ACC) regarding botanicals that are brought to the market as nutritional supplements. Since the European Claims Regulation, only specific health claims approved by the European Commission after being adviced by EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) for an ingredient are permitted.