Labelling of organic pet food

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes the proposal for a Regulation on the labelling of organic pet food and calls for its swift adoption in order to ensure continuity with current requirements, before the entry into force of the new Regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products.
• believes that the pet food sector has a role to play in contributing to the European Green Deal objectives, and that these new labelling measures will help to develop and promote the sector, both by selling products to consumers mindful of the organic content of what they buy, and through the opportunity to bring added value to organic by-products. The sector will thus be able to contribute, albeit moderately, to achieving the 25% target of EU agricultural land under organic farming by 2030, as included in the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, and in the Action Plan for the development of EU organic production.

• encourages the Commission and European institutions to communicate on this new Regulation and its objectives, in order to further strengthen consumer demand and confidence in organic products.
• given that pet food is intended for sale to consumers, recommends involving and consulting the industry in legislative work on the sustainability of food products, such as the labelling of sustainable food products, the environmental performance of products and sustainable packaging[1].

[1]     EESC opinion Towards a sustainable food labelling framework to empower consumers to make sustainable food choices (NAT/857), not yet published in the Official Journal