Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Agriculture - Common organisation of the markets - Milk and milk products - Protection of designations - Use of the designation `cheese' to describe a dietary product in which the natural fat has been replaced by vegetable fat - Not permissible - Additional descriptions - No effect

(Council Regulation No 1898/87, Art. 3(1); Council Directive 89/398, Art. 3(2))

Summary

$$Article 3(1) of Regulation No 1898/87 on the protection of designations used in marketing of milk and milk products, read in conjunction with Article 3(2) of Directive 89/398 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional uses, is to be interpreted as meaning that a milk product in which the milk fat has been replaced by vegetable fat for dietetic reasons may not be designated as `cheese'.

A designation such as `Dietary cheese (Dietary soft cheese) containing vegetable oil for a fat-modified diet' may not be used in the case of products derived from milk in which a natural constituent of milk has been replaced by a foreign substance, even when that designation is accompanied by additional descriptions on the products' packaging, such as `This dietary cheese is rich in polyunsaturated fats' or `This dietary cheese is ideal for a cholesterol-conscious lifestyle'. Those descriptions not only do not clearly indicate that the milk fat has been entirely replaced by vegetable fat but they even increase the risk of confusion in the consumer's mind in that, in breach of Article 3(2) of the Regulation, they suggest, by the unlawful use of the term `cheese', that those products are milk products.