Ignacio Carreño and Paolo R. Vergano publish article on Clean Labels and “Self-evident” and “Flagrantly Misleading” “Palm Oil-free” Claims
The article, published in Issue 2/2015 of the European Journal of Risk Regulation (EJRR) addresses the legal concept of “self-evident” and “flagrantly misleading” advertising established in Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers (the Food Information Regulation, FIR). Since 13 December 2014 (since the specific origin of vegetable oils must be declared), “palm oil-free” claims on, e.g., a product containing sunflower oil or any other vegetable oil (and mandatorily indicating it in the list of ingredients) are arguably obvious, unnecessary and irrelevant (and in legal terms “self-evident” and “flagrantly misleading”). Compared to similar foods that possess the same characteristics, but do not claim to be “palm oil-free”, these products are in no way “special”.