Enhancing quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

• It seeks to enhance the European Union’s (EU) quality policy for agricultural products by increasing the coherence of various quality schemes.
• It includes measures to ensure fair competition for farmers and producers of products registered as protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG), to:
  • protect intellectual property rights;
  • provide fair information to consumers about these products; and
  • support agricultural and processing activities.
• along with the farming systems associated with high-quality products, in line with EU rural development policy objectives.

KEY POINTS

Scope

The regulation covers agricultural products intended for human consumption except for spirit drinks and grapevine products.

Main features

The regulation’s main features are as follows:

• it groups, in a single regulation, rules for registering products as PDO, PGI and TSG since the application of amending Regulation (EU) 2021/2117;
• it lays down a single set of rules for PDO, PGI and TSG as regards procedures and the role of producers;
• it strengthens and simplifies the PDO, PGI and TSG schemes;
• it reinforces and clarifies the level of protection of registered names and the common EU symbols;
• it shortens and simplifies the procedure to register names (PDO, PGI and TSG);
• it allows for reasoned written objection within 3 months from the publication of the application in the Official Journal of the European Union;
• it requires EU products registered and marketed as PDO, PGI or TSG in line with this regulation, along with advertising materials for such products, to have labels showing the EU symbol and the name of the product;
• since the application of amending Regulation (EU) 2017/625 (see summary), it requires that before products are placed on the market a check for compliance with product specifications is carried out by:
  • the relevant national authorities designated in Article 4, or
  • delegated bodies as defined in Article 3(5) – delegated bodies performing checks in non-EU countries must be accredited to the relevant common standard for ‘conformity assessment – requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services’.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 has applied since 3 January 2013, although Article 12(3) and Article 23(3) have applied since 4 January 2016, without any negative effect on products already placed on the market before that date.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

• Aims of EU quality schemes (European Commission).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs (OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, pp. 1–29).

Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 have been incorporated into the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products, amending Regulations (EC) No 999/2001, (EC) No 396/2005, (EC) No 1069/2009, (EC) No 1107/2009, (EU) No 1151/2012, (EU) No 652/2014, (EU) 2016/429 and (EU) 2016/2031 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Regulations (EC) No 1/2005 and (EC) No 1099/2009 and Council Directives 98/58/EC, 1999/74/EC, 2007/43/EC, 2008/119/EC and 2008/120/EC, and repealing Regulations (EC) No 854/2004 and (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Council Directives 89/608/EEC, 89/662/EEC, 90/425/EEC, 91/496/EEC, 96/23/EC, 96/93/EC and 97/78/EC and Council Decision 92/438/EEC (Official Controls Regulation) (OJ L 95, 7.4.2017, pp. 1–142).

See consolidated version.

Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2015 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (OJ L 336, 23.12.2015, pp. 1–26).

See consolidated version.

Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007 (OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, pp. 671–854).

See consolidated version.

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 (OJ L 304, 22.11.2011, pp. 18–63).

See consolidated version.

last update 23.09.2022