Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1924/2006 and (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Commission Regulation (EC) No 608/2004 (Text with EEA relevance)

• Published date: 22 November 2011
• Official Gazette Publication: Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 304, 22 novembre 2011,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 304, 22 novembre 2011,Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 304, 22 de noviembre de 2011

02011R1169 — EN — 01.01.2018 — 003.001

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►B REGULATION (EU) No 1169/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 October 2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1924/2006 and (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Commission Regulation (EC) No 608/2004(Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 304 22.11.2011, p. 18)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) No 1155/2013 of 21 August 2013	L 306	7	16.11.2013
►M2	COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) No 78/2014 of 22 November 2013	L 27	7	30.1.2014
►M3	REGULATION (EU) 2015/2283 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 November 2015	L 327	1	11.12.2015

Corrected by:

►C1	Corrigendum, OJ L 247, 13.9.2012, p. 17 (1169/2011)
►C2	Corrigendum, OJ L 266, 30.9.2016, p. 7 (1169/2011)

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▼B

REGULATION (EU) No 1169/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 25 October 2011

on the provision of food information to consumers, amending Regulations (EC) No 1924/2006 and (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Commission Directive 87/250/EEC, Council Directive 90/496/EEC, Commission Directive 1999/10/EC, Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Directives 2002/67/EC and 2008/5/EC and Commission Regulation (EC) No 608/2004

(Text with EEA relevance)

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter and scope

1. This Regulation provides the basis for the assurance of a high level of consumer protection in relation to food information, taking into account the differences in the perception of consumers and their information needs whilst ensuring the smooth functioning of the internal market.

2. This Regulation establishes the general principles, requirements and responsibilities governing food information, and in particular food labelling. It lays down the means to guarantee the right of consumers to information and procedures for the provision of food information, taking into account the need to provide sufficient flexibility to respond to future developments and new information requirements.

3. This Regulation shall apply to food business operators at all stages of the food chain, where their activities concern the provision of food information to consumers. It shall apply to all foods intended for the final consumer, including foods delivered by mass caterers, and foods intended for supply to mass caterers.

This Regulation shall apply to catering services provided by transport undertakings when the departure takes place on the territories of the Member States to which the Treaties apply.

4. This Regulation shall apply without prejudice to labelling requirements provided for in specific Union provisions applicable to particular foods.

Article 2

Definitions

1. For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(a)the definitions of ‘food’, ‘food law’, ‘food business’, ‘food business operator’, ‘retail’, ‘placing on the market’ and ‘final consumer’ in Article 2 and in points (1), (2), (3), (7), (8) and (18) of Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002;

(b)the definitions of ‘processing’, ‘unprocessed products’ and ‘processed products’ in points (m), (n) and (o) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs (1);

(c)the definition of ‘food enzyme’ in point (a) of Article 3(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1332/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on food enzymes (2);

(d)the definitions of ‘food additive’, ‘processing aid’ and ‘carrier’ in points (a) and (b) of Article 3(2) of, and in point 5 of Annex I to, Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on food additives (3);

(e)the definition of ‘flavourings’ in point (a) of Article 3(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1334/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on flavourings and certain food ingredients with flavouring properties for use in and on foods (4);

(f)the definitions of ‘meat’, ‘mechanically separated meat’, ‘meat preparations’, ‘fishery products’ and ‘meat products’ in points 1.1, 1.14, 1.15, 3.1 and 7.1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 laying down specific hygiene rules for food of animal origin (5);

(g)the definition of ‘advertising’ in point (a) of Article 2 of Directive 2006/114/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 concerning misleading and comparative advertising (6);

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(h)the definition of ‘engineered nanomaterials’ as established by point (f) of Article 3(2) of Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7).

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2. The following definitions shall also apply:

(a)‘food information’ means information concerning a food and made available to the final consumer by means of a label, other accompanying material, or any other means including modern technology tools or verbal communication;

(b)‘food information law’ means the Union provisions governing the food information, and in particular labelling, including rules of a general nature applicable to all foods in particular circumstances or to certain categories of foods and rules which apply only to specific foods;

(c)‘mandatory food information’ means the particulars that are required to be provided to the final consumer by Union provisions;

(d)‘mass caterer’ means any establishment (including a vehicle or a fixed or mobile stall), such as restaurants, canteens, schools, hospitals and catering enterprises in which, in the course of a business, food is prepared to be ready for consumption by the final consumer;

(e)‘prepacked food’ means any single item for presentation as such to the final consumer and to mass caterers, consisting of a food and the packaging into which it was put before being offered for sale, whether such packaging encloses the food completely or only partially, but in any event in such a way that the contents cannot be altered without opening or changing the packaging; ‘prepacked food’ does not cover foods packed on the sales premises at the consumer’s request or prepacked for direct sale;

(f)‘ingredient’ means any substance or product, including flavourings, food additives and food enzymes, and any constituent of a compound ingredient, used in the manufacture or preparation of a food and still present in the finished product, even if in an altered form; residues shall not be considered as ‘ingredients’;

(g)‘place of provenance’ means any place where a food is indicated to come from, and that is not the ‘country of origin’ as determined in accordance with Articles 23 to 26 of Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92; the name, business name or address of the food business operator on the label shall not constitute an indication of the country of origin or place of provenance of food within the meaning of this Regulation;

(h)‘compound ingredient’ means an ingredient that is itself the product of more than one ingredient;

(i)‘label’ means any tag, brand, mark, pictorial or other descriptive matter, written, printed, stencilled, marked, embossed or impressed on, or attached to the packaging or container of food;

(j)‘labelling’ means any words, particulars, trade marks, brand name, pictorial matter or symbol relating to a food and placed on any packaging, document, notice, label, ring or collar accompanying or referring to such food;

(k)‘field of vision’ means all the surfaces of a package that can be read from a single viewing point;

(l)‘principal field of vision’ means the field of vision of a package which is most likely to be seen at first glance by the consumer at the time of purchase and that enables the consumer to immediately identify a product in terms of its character or nature and, if applicable, its brand name. If a package has several identical principal fields of vision, the principal field of vision is the one chosen by the food business operator;

(m)‘legibility’ means the physical appearance of information, by means of which the information is visually accessible to the general population and which is determined by various elements, inter alia, font size, letter spacing, spacing between lines, stroke width, type colour, typeface, width-height ratio of the letters, the surface of the material and significant contrast between the print and the background;

(n)‘legal name’ means the name of a food prescribed in the Union provisions applicable to it or, in the absence of such Union provisions, the name provided for in the laws, regulations and administrative provisions applicable in the Member State in which the food is sold to the final consumer or to mass caterers;

(o)‘customary name’ means a name which is accepted as the name of the food by consumers in the Member State in which that food is sold, without that name needing further...