Information to consumers and operators’ responsibility in food business

This article illustrates the contents of the distributor’s responsibility according to the new 1169/11/EU Regulation on the provision of food information to consumers, and its impact on the free movement of foodstuffs from a contractual and penalty liability viewpoint of food business operators in the European Union market. The analysis compares the previous legislation and its interpretation by the European Court of Justice with the new text, on the specific matter of food law obligations and the position of the distributor in the food supply chain, critiquing the apparent incoherent structure of article 8 of the new Regulation and exploring the relationship of the new text with the lialbility for defective product law. The final evaluation as to the extent of innovation of the norm on this point in the general context of the food liability chain is negative.