An article by legal firm Potter Clarkson gives insight from a Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA) follow-up to Europol’s Operation Opson. The DVFA concluded that many food manufacturers were too liberal in the way they used protected food origins or descriptors – such as parmesan cheese or La Mancha wine – on their products. Legally-protected terms cannot be used without evidence from ingredient suppliers to back them up. Although the DVFA concluded that these were mainly “unconscious violations” they still broke EU (and UK) law. Potter Clarkson conclude that Danish violations are minor in comparison to other countries and that lack of legal compliance is an international problem. The article gives a good summary of EU law in this area.
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