Mandatory COOL In Italy

WASHINGTON - Mar 14/06 - SNS -- The Italian government is implementing mandatory country-of-origin labeling on some tomato products in an attempt to protect domestic production from Chinese imports, reports the U.S. agricultural attache for the country.

On July 24, 2004 the Italian Parliament approved a framework law on mandatory country-of-origin (COOL) labeling of food products. The law, effective August 2004, mandated that food processors indicate the country of origin of all ingredients used in their preparations (except where there are multiple ingredients, only the "prevalent ingredient" origin need be listed), but it set detailed COOL standards only for olive oil.

The development of implementing decrees with product-specific labeling standards for other products was left to the Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with Ministry of Productive Activities.

It is important to note that as of this reporting, COOL is mandatory in Italy for beef, fish and seafood, fruit and vegetables under DU regulations, while national regulations exist for olive oil, honey and poultry meat.

The 2004 COOL law received strong support from farmer organizations and Minister of Agriculture Alemanno. The food processing sector, on the other hand, was strongly opposed as it feared a serious threat to the image of their products (many of which are made of both domestic and imported ingredients) in domestic and foreign markets.

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