The French National Assembly, the country's lower house of Parliament, has postponed by three years, a government move to ban the manufacture of agrochemicals that do not hold approval within the EU but are exported to countries outside the EU.

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly has opened an inquiry into the EU approval process for five agrochemical active ingredients, and the use of the confirmatory data procedure (CDP), following two complaints from environmental group Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe.

The use of the term ‘detox’ on food labels or in advertisements, needs approval as a health claim in Europe, EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis made clear in responding to a question from a French MEP.

Czech Agriculture Minister Miroslav Toman has provisionally agreed to drop emergency checks on Polish beef after Warsaw promised to put in place new measures to address concerns over food safety.

Shops selling products containing Cannabidiol (CBD) are popping-up across Europe and raising questions about their legality, write Katia Merten-Lentz and Manon Ombredane of international law firm Keller & Heckman.

The European Commission’s latest report on the welfare of livestock transported to non-EU countries makes uncomfortable reading for Croatia, where large numbers of animals are put on ships to the Middle East.

A staggering 6.8% of goods imported into the EU are counterfeit, up from 5% in 2013, according to a joint report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

The UK’s plans to drop import tariffs on goods entering Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic in the event of a no deal Brexit could breach international trade law, Phil Hogan, the EU’s Commissioner for Agriculture, has warned.

The control system for organic production in the EU has improved in recent years, but there are still shortcomings in the national supervision of compliance and on product traceability, the European Court of Auditors has found.

Members of the European Parliament have endorsed a new set of rules aimed at protecting small agri-food companies against trade malpractices imposed by larger entities up the food chain.

The food industry advertising watchdog in Norway, MFU, has charged Coca-Cola Norway with violating its marketing guidelines. The violation is connected to the company’s “CokeTV” YouTube channel content.

Digital technologies have a great potential to help farmers and food chain actors deal with their main challenges, but some applications will have a lot more impact than others, members of the European Parliament heard today. 

The German government is seeking to curb food waste through a range of voluntary measures and funding for research into ‘intelligent packaging’ methods.

Food waste in Italy accounts for almost one percentage point of the gross domestic product of the whole country.

A key European Parliament committee has given the green light to a package of measures designed to clamp down on single use plastics, including a ban on expanded polystyrene fast food containers.

Norway appears to be on top of the food waste problem with a survey finding a 13% decrease in waste between 2015-2017. This has come after a 14% decline in food waste between 2010 and 2015.

EU member states have given the green light to the deal struck with the European Parliament last month to crack down on single use plastics in a January 18 meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper).

The UK government has proposed new rules that would restrict retailers from using promotions of food and drink high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), such as “buy one get one free”.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has handed down a positive opinion on the safety of the colouring annatto E (E160 b), after assessing new mutagenicity data.

The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Panel on has come out against a request to increase the current acceptable daily intake (ADI) for ethyl lauroyl arginate (E 243) to 5 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight (mg/kg bw) – 10 times the current limit of 0.5 mg/kg bw.

The French food safety agency, ANSES, is calling for information about the use of nanomaterials on food.