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Revision of EU marketing standards for certain 'breakfast' directives
EU food markets have evolved significantly over time, driven by innovation and changes in consumer demand and expectations. Taking this shift into account, on 21 April 2023 the European Commission proposed to update some of the rules governing a set of directives on food products – the 'breakfast' directives. Changes include introducing stricter origin labelling for honey, increasing the fruit content in jams, reducing sugar in fruit juice and clearing the way for the production of lactose-free evaporated ...
Research for the AGRI committee: The role of commodity traders in shaping agricultural markets.
This study provides an overview of the impact of commodity traders on agricultural markets. It examines the ramifications of financialisation, explores prevailing trends, and confronts the challenges that characterise the industry's landscape. Moreover, after analysing the regulatory state of play at the international level, it provides suggestions towards bolstering the sector's accountability and transparency, essential for fostering trust and sustainability. By scrutinising these aspects, this ...
Research for the AGRI Committee - The dependency of the EU’s food system on inputs and their sources.
This study analyses the vulnerabilities of the EU food system regarding inputs, describing the tools to secure those inputs and make the EU less dependent on foreign suppliers. It provides recommendations for appropriate measures to increase the EU food system’s resilience to disruptions in trade flows and price increases of imported inputs.
Investigación para la Comisión AGRI: La dependencia del sistema alimentario de la UE de los insumos y sus fuente
El presente documento es el resumen ejecutivo del estudio encargado por la Comisión AGRI sobre «La dependencia del sistema alimentario de la UE de los insumos y sus fuentes». El estudio completo, que está disponible en inglés, se puede descargar en: https://bit.ly/3IfPyjy
Sustainable food systems - Pre-legislative synthesis of national, regional and local positions on the European Commission's initiative
This briefing provides a pre-legislative synthesis of the positions of national, regional and local governmental organisations on the European Commission's forthcoming proposal on sustainable food systems. It forms part of an EPRS series offering a summary of the pre-legislative state of play and advance consultation on a range of key European Commission priorities during its 5-year term in office. It seeks to present the current state of affairs, examine how existing policy is working on the ground ...
World Food Safety Day: How to handle food safely
Access to safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health. The fifth World Food Safety Day will be celebrated on 7 June 2023, to draw attention to the need to prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, and to inspire action in this regard. The globalisation of the food trade, a growing world population, climate change and rapidly changing food systems all have an impact on food safety. World Health Organization (WHO) data reveal that unsafe food containing harmful bacteria ...
Food security in 2023: EU response to an evolving crisis
Food insecurity remains one of the most pressing global challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have made the food crisis significantly worse in recent years, threatening millions of people worldwide. Despite some promising trends, food inflation remains consistently high, and it depends on a volatile environmental and geopolitical context. The EU has devoted substantial resources to tackling the immediate effects of the crisis. However, in the long run, the key to food ...
World Food Day 2022: Leave no one behind
World Food Day is celebrated every year on 16 October to promote awareness and action in support of those who suffer from hunger. Worryingly, estimates reveal that a growing number of people – between 702 million and 828 million (around 10 % of the world's population) – faced hunger in 2021.In the EU, nearly 39 million people cannot afford a quality meal every second day, while estimates show that each person wastes on average between 173 kg and 343 kg of food a year. NGOs argue that in 2021, the ...
Small farms' role in the EU food system
Most of the world's farmers are engaged in small scale agriculture. The majority of them are in developing countries but there are many in developed countries as well. Small farms make up the vast majority of the EU's 10 million farms. What constitutes a small farm depends on the context. However, improving the conditions of small-scale food producers is a global objective. Recent studies have lowered past estimates of how much of the global food supply is produced by small farms. Notwithstanding ...
Food security and nutrition as keys to human development
The increase of severe food insecurity is a major point of concern. At the request of the Ϸվ’s Development committee, two briefings were prepared to explore the role of food security and nutrition as basic interventions in development policies. By drawing on a series of ‘stories from the field’, the first briefing showed the importance of focusing on supporting local food systems, while incorporating a household-centric view of crop diversification and resilience. The second briefing built ...