Pros and Cons of Introducing a Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling for Dairy Products in Germany

with a regional declaration of the origin concerning main ingredients and their place of processing, protected designations of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indications (PGI) regulated by (EU) No 1151/2012 defined by particular quality or other value-adding characteristics or attributes. The German Food, Consumer Goods and Feed Code (LFGB) contains regulations for the protection of consumers against fraud and deception regarding origin labelling (LFGB, Article 11(1), sentence 2). Article 3(1) German Food Labelling Ordinance (LMKV) deals with indirect declarations of origin for food e.g., for milk products whereas it is mandatory to specify the name of the company or producer by an id-code so that an identification is guaranteed. In this context the main point is discussion is, that consumers may want to identify place of origin of the raw material and or processing of dairy products, but, at the moment, they are unable to do so with respect to all products offered.