Mandatory origin labelling for milk and dairy products
Decision 1710/51865/4.4.2018 of the Minister of Rural Development and Food sets out the details of the implementation of mandatory origin labelling on milk and dairy products.
In the case of indications according to par. 1 of Article 5 of Law No. 4492/2017, all countries shall be indicated in detail, regardless of whether it is an EU or non-EU country, in full or by their internationally recognised acronym.
In the case of milk mixing, the milking countries, according to par. 1 of Article 5 of Law No. 4492/2017 (A’156), shall be listed in descending order according to the percentage of admixture. In the case of milk mixing, irrespective of the proportion, from countries within the EU, the indications according to par. 3 of Article 5 of Law No. 4492/2017, may be given uniformly as “Origin of milk within the EU”, while if the milk mixture includes a country outside the EU, the indications according to par. 4 of Article 5 of Law No. 5. 4492/2017, the indications may be uniformly attributed as “Non-EU milk origin”.
As stated in par. 2 of Article 5 of Law No. 5. 4492/2017 only if the country of milking, processing – such as any heat treatment, concentration or manufacture of curd – and packaging of the final product is one country, the indication “Origin of milk: country name” may be used instead of the indications of paragraph 4. 1 of Article 5 of Law No. 5, the use of the term ‘milk’ may be used instead of the term ‘milk’ in Article 1 of Article 5 of the Law. 4492/2017.
The use of the Greek flag is understood only in products where the origin of the milk and other dairy ingredients is exclusively of Greek origin and they have been awarded the “Greek Label”, based on KYA K4-7838/28.5.2014.
For PDO products, no additional labelling on the origin of the milk is indicated and the specific national and EU provisions apply.
The compulsory indications shall be printed in a permanent manner, including inkjet printing, at least in the main visual field of the packaging of the finished product, close to the sales name in a font of at least the same size as the sales name. The above requirement concerning the proximity to the sales name and the size of the font shall also apply, except for pre-packaged products, to special signs at the point of sale for non-pre-packaged products.
The provisions of Articles 5, 6, 7 and 15 of Law No. 4492/2017 regarding the mandatory origin labelling of milk and milk as an ingredient apply to all products, pre-packaged or not, listed in Annex II, namely also to the “Products not considered and not called cheese” of point 5 of Section A of Article 83 and milk-based products of Article 84 of the Food and Beverage Code.
Private label products are not exempt from the obligation to indicate the origin of milk. According to Article 7 of Law No. 4492/2017, only finished products that are legally produced or marketed in another EU Member State or third country, which are marketed in Greece by indicating the country of origin of the finished product, in accordance with Article 60 of Reg. (EU) 952/2013 of the European Commission. Parliament and Council.
In the case that, when carrying out the controls of Article 6 of Law No. 4492/2017, deviations from the legislation in force at any stage of production, utilization, processing, standardization, distribution and marketing by the competent teams of EFET, ELGO DIMITRA or the Departments of Agricultural Economy and Veterinary of the regional units of the country are found, they shall immediately forward them to the competent authorities and in accordance with the procedure described in Article 24 of Law No. 4235/2014 the inspection reports together with any observations of the inspected undertaking. The competent authorities shall notify the decisions imposing the administrative sanctions to the Directorate for Food Utilisation and Technology, so that the latter can monitor the implementation of the provisions of Law 42353535. 4492/2017 and the Decision and to evaluate, as provided for in Article 8 of Law 4492/2017, the progress of the implementation of the provisions of this Law and the Decision. 4492/2017, the effectiveness of their implementation.
Download the legislation.
4492-2017-ΦΕΚ-Α-156
