Country of origin requirements (COOL) (Sweden)
In Sweden, certain foods are required to be labelled with the country of origin. However, this is not based on national rules but the legislative requirements are primarily to be found in Regulation (EC) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers. The requirement extends to fish, beef, pork, lamb, goat, poultry, honey, fruit and vegetables. For origin labelling of beef, see Regulations (EC) No. 1760/2000 and (EC) No. 1825/2000 For require-ments related to labelling with the relevant catch zone for fish see Regulation in Regulation (EU) No. 1379/2013. Moreover, Regulation (EU) No. 1337/2013 provides clarification regarding the specifications for origin labelling in the case of meat derived from pigs, sheep, goats, and poultry.
Even in the absence of a requirement to indicate the country of origin of a particular food product, the origin must be specified if there is a risk that the consumer may be misled by the absence of this information. This applies especially when other information suggests that the food has a different origin than it actually has. Such other information may include the food's designation, trademark, logo, company name, images and symbols such as flags, pennants or other national or regional symbols, as well as the colouring of the packaging and background when presenting the food (see Article 26.2.a of Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011). A very specific but unfortunately current and relevant re-quirement is that it must be clear from a labelling that the product comes from the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, with clarification as to whether it comes from an Israeli settlement or Palestinian territory.
According to Article 60(1) of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, goods wholly obtained in a single country or territory shall be regarded as originating in/from that country or territory. In some cases, the country of origin of a given food may be different from the origin of the “primary ingredient”. Primary ingredient is according to Article 2.2.q of Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 defined as “an ingredient or ingredients of a food that represent more than 50 % of that food or which are usually associated with the name of the food by the consumer and for which in most cases a quantitative indication is required”. Where the country of origin of a food is indicated and it is not the same as the country of origin of the foodstuff’s primary ingredient, the country of origin of the primary ingredient in question shall also be indicated or the country of origin of the primary ingredient shall be indicated as being different from that of the food (see Article 26(3)(a) and (b) of Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011).