Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 places responsibility for food information on the food business operator under whose name or business name the food is marketed. Where that operator is not established in the Union, responsibility falls on the importer into the Union market. The label must carry that operator’s name and address.
Why this surprises private label buyers
A buyer commissioning private label from a third-country plant often assumes the plant carries the label risk because the plant printed the artwork. It does not. If your name is on the pack, you are the responsible operator, and a competent authority will come to you with questions about the ingredient list, the allergen declaration, the nutrition declaration and the durability date.
That has three consequences worth building into the contract.
- Approve artwork formally, version it, and keep the approved version with the specification rather than in an email thread.
- Require the supplier to notify any recipe, process or packaging change before it is implemented, since each can invalidate the declaration you approved.
- Require the supporting evidence to be transferable: the compositional data behind the nutrition declaration, the allergen assessment, the shelf-life justification, and the packaging documentation for the pack format actually used.
Operators who do not modify the information but distribute the food still have duties, including not supplying food they know or presume to be non-compliant. Distribution is therefore not a shelter.
The practical division of work between brand owner and manufacturer is set out in the EU labelling guide. Vorezan is an information platform, not a legal adviser; take your own advice on responsibility in a specific supply arrangement.
