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How could we live without Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 in Germany for more than half a century? Would we have invented this comprehensive piece of legislation, had it not been sent to us from Brussels? And more importantly: Have the general principles of food law entrenched therein made any noticeable difference to German food practice? Of course one could add lots of further questions upon the occasion of the Regulation's 10th birthday. But any suggested answers would presumably still remain open for discussion.
After all, in Germany one did not really feel a desperate need for the European legislator to act at the time. However, there surely was a need for harmonisation of certain areas of food law, especially the free movement of food, as identified in the preceding Green Paper "The general principles of food law" of 30.4.1997. The pertinent "White Paper on Food Safety" of 12.1.2000 proposed "a radical new approach" to the "highest standards of food safety". That, one has to remember, was one of the main reasons - together with the BSE-crisis - for the enactment of the Regulation, which had originally been intended to become a directive.
The speed with which Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 was published came as a surprise in Germany. Even more unexpected was the fact that the European legislator had opted for a regulation rather than a directive, which made the imminent European law directly applicable in this country without any measures of implementation. The new general principles of food law, namely the concept of risk analysis and the precautionary principle, essential food safety requirements together with special rules on withdrawals and recalls as well as the allocation of responsibilities and traceability, were to enter into force on 1.1.2005.
This leftthe German legislator with less than three years to react. After all, the German "Food and Commodities Act" of 1974 (LMBG) contained a number of national provisions colliding with the coming European law, for instance a definition of "food", strict health and safety provisions and most notably a definition of additives, subject to authorisation, which were distinguished as technological or nutritive, the latter category including minerals, the vitamins...