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• Regulatory challenges of innovation in food and agriculture market authorization requirements for new foods

  137-142

  Bernd van der Meulen

  Anna Szajkowska

  Views:

  159

  Regulatory authorities face the challenge to strike a fair balance between the interests of consumers to ensure the safety of innovative foods and agricultural products and the interest of innovative businesses.Worldwide prior authorization schemes are applied. This contribution explores characteristics, pros and cons of such schemes. It identifies concerns but also best practices that may contribute to improving food safety without unduly hampering innovation.

• Opportunities, problems and pitfalls of nutrition and health claims

  97-101

  Harry J. Bremmers

  Bernd van der Meulen

  Views:

  156

  The provision of reliable food information, for instance by printing an authorised nutrition or health claim on a package of food, makes credence dimensions of a food transparent to the consumer. In Europe, prior­to­use authorisation of nutrition and health claims are mandatory and governed by Regulation (EC) 1924/2006. The aim of this paper is to assess the problems and pitfalls of the European claims regime to food businesses. A legal­economic review is performed, supported by case studies. Strategic factors determining whether or not to claim are of a legal­economic kind. Strategic responses include refraining from the use or application of claims, abstaining from innovation, and/or circumvention of the authorisation procedure. Negative social­economic effects make it necessary to improve the present legal structures with respect to their effectiveness while maintaining the balance between public control and individual freedom.

• Legal-economic barriers to price transfers in food supply chains

  27-33

  Harry Bremmers

  Bernd van der Meulen

  Zorica Sredojevi

  Jo Wijnands

  Views:

  174

  Recent price movements have put food supply chains under pressure. On the one side, upward price tendencies on commodity markets result in higher costs to processing firms. On the other side, these firms are confronted with a strong retail sector that is able to prevent compensation to protect consumers’ and own economic interests. Regulatory impediments of European law, especially with respect to foodstuffs, can adversely be utilized as barriers to protect the interest downstream the supply chain. The problem is that legal-economic instruments which can serve to smooth price volatility in supply markets can also opportunistically be used at the expense of the middlesection in food supply chains (i.e., mainly small and medium sized producers). The aim of this article is to identify the legal-economic mechanisms that effect price transfers in food supply chains in the European Union and define policy adjustments to improve pricing mechanisms, while safeguarding the interests of the processing industry. Policy alternatives to improve the smooth functioning of notably intermediate markets in food supply chains are the restructuring of competition law, improved processor information management and creating transparency of value added in the supply chain by means of labelling devices.