Food Information Regulation

Overview

The new LMIV / GMO

The provisions of the Food Information Regulation have been the legal basis for food labeling in the European Union since 13.12.2014. This collection of legal provisions also covers some specific fishery products (including aquaculture products), which are presented below.

SCIENTIFIC TERMS:

With the entry into force of the Control Regulation (EU) No. 122472009, it has been legally binding since January 1, 2012 to indicate the scientific name of the species of the fishery or aquaculture product in addition to the commercial name of the species. For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that the scientific name of a species does not end with the letters "spp-" (e.g. Gadus spp.).

FISHING AREA, PRODUCTION METHOD AND GEAR CATEGORY:

The indication of the fishing area poses a particular challenge, as the EU legislator has extended the indications for fish, crustaceans and molluscs from the North-East Atlantic. Until 12.12.2014, it was sufficient to state "North-East Atlantic" as the catch area, but since 13.12.2014, one of the 11 so-called sub-catch areas must be stated for fishery products from this catch area. However, as some of these "sub-areas" consist of several divisions, the possible selection of "more precise catch areas" for fishery products from the North-East Atlantic increases to 34 divisions ("sub-sub-catch areas"). The same applies to the indication of catch areas for fish, crustaceans and molluscs from the Mediterranean. For all other "origins", the indication of the FAO catch area is sufficient as before. In the case of aquaculture products, the country in which the product reaches more than half of its final weight or was present during the rearing period or - in the case of crustaceans and molluscs - during a final rearing phase of at least six months must be indicated.

Also new is the labeling of the fishing gear category for products from sea and inland fishing. To this end, the EU legislator has specified 7 categories of fishing gear, which are shown below:

Calf nets:

  1. Beach calves
  2. Snurrewaden
  3. Scottish seine nets
  4. Two-vessel seine nets

Trawls:

  1. Beam trawl
  2. Basic shear board nets
  3. Two-ship bottom trawls
  4. Pelagic otter trawls
  5. Pelagic twin trawls
  6. Basic shear board trouser nets

Gillnets and similar nets:

  1. Gillnets - Gillnets
  2. Drift net
  3. Enclosing gillnets
  4. Mirror nets - Entangling nets
  5. Combined gill/entangling net

Enclosure and lifting nets:

  1. Purse seine
  2. Lampara nets
  3. Drop cloths
  4. Stationary lifting nets

Hooks and longlines:

  1. Purse seine
  2. Lampara nets
  3. Drop cloths
  4. Stationary lifting nets

Dredgen:

  1. Bootdredgen
  2. Hand dredges, used on board ships
  3. Mechanized dredges including suction dredgers

Fish traps and snares:

  1. Traps

ENDANGERED SPECIES / NO GO'S

One of our goals is not to list and trade endangered species. To this end, we have drawn up a list of endangered fish species, which is updated annually. Our purchasing policy is reviewed and adapted at regular intervals in relation to the list.

List of endangered species/No Go's