Community legislation on the labelling of foodstuffs includes general provisions on the labelling of foodstuffs to be delivered to the consumer, as laid out in European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/13/EC Corrigenda (only applies to EN version) of 20 March 2000, and labelling provisions contained in legislations which apply to specific products, such as beef or chocolate.

Directive 2000/13/EC has been amended by Commission Directive 2001/101/EC of 26 November 2001 regulating the definition of meat for labelling purpose, where meat is used as an ingredient in foodstuffs, and by Directive 2003/89/EC of 10 November 2003, as regard indication of the ingredients present in foodstuffs.

This last amendment makes obligatory for all ingredients to be indicated on the label. The new labelling rules in particular aim to ensure that consumers suffering from food allergies or who wish to avoid eating certain ingredients for any other reason are informed. They foresee that all ingredients in foodstuffs will have to be included on the label and  abolish the "25% rule" which up to now meant that it is was not obligatory to label the components of compound ingredients that make up less than 25% of the final food product. The new Directive also establishes a list of ingredients liable to cause allergies or intolerances; alcoholic beverages will also have the obligation to mention allergens on their labels.

These new provisions will be fully implemented as from 25 November 2005. Informal guidelines guidelines relating to Art 6 §10 of Dir 2000/13/EC as amended by Dir 2003/89/EC regarding the provisions set out in Article 6, paragraph 10 of Directive 2000/13/EC as amended by Directive 2003/89/EC, have been elaborated by the Commission' services and representatives of member States in order to clarify some questions relating to the indication of the ingredients listed in Annex IIIa of the Directive. These guidelines were approved on 23 June 2005 by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.

However, since it is possible that some ingredients or substances, derived from allergens, are not likely to be a risk for allergic peoples, the Directive establishes, during a transitional period, a procedure which allows the industry to provide scientific justification for that, and to obtain a provisional labelling exemption for these ingredients or substances.

Guidelines have been adopted by the Commission's services for the implementation of this procedure. Commission Directive 2005/26/EC, establishing a list of substances provisionally exempted, has been adopted by the Commission on 21st March 2005, following EFSA's opinions on each request.

These provisional exemptions are granted until 25 November 2007. Requests for exemptions beyond that date could be introduced and new guidelines from the Commission services have been elaborated in that purpose.

Council Directive 2000/13/EC on labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs to the final consumer is the main piece of EU legislation regarding the labelling of foodstuffs. This Directive is based upon the principle of functional labelling. Its aim is to ensure that the consumer gets all the essential information as regards the composition of the product, the manufacturer, methods of storage and preparation, etc. Producers and manufacturers are free to provide whatever additional information they wish, provided that it is accurate and does not mislead the consumer. Furthermore, this Directive prohibits the attribution to any foodstuff of the property of preventing, treating or curing a human disease, or reference to such properties to Directive 2000/13/EC.

Finally, because labelling, tends to be complex and unclear, which goes against the sought objective and involves additional difficulties in application and control of the applicable provisions, the Commission has also taken steps, in close co-operation with the representatives of the Member States, of consumers, of industry and of trade, to engage in making an evaluation of legislation on labelling, from a modernisation and simplification point of view. Indeed, consumers today express a particularly strong expectation for complete and precise information on foodstuffs.

The conclusions of this study have been recently finalized. They identify the key points on which the Commission will now have to focus for drawing-up a future proposal with a view to modernising the Community legislation on labelling. It is expected that such a proposal could be put forward in 2006, following a consultation process with all interested parties.

In 1997 general guidelines for implementing the principle of Quantitative Ingredients Declaration (QUID) were introduced. Labels are to indicate the quantity of certain ingredients expressed as a percentage of the final product. The Guidelines were revised in December 1998.