Food & Drink

Food and (soft) drinks marcoms rules across Europe are pretty severe and quite complex. Their "spine" is formed by EU Regulations (directly applicable in member states) 1924/2006 which sets out permitted nutrition and health claims and the conditions under which they can be made, and 1169/2011 which is more to do with labelling but includes some broader communication requirements. Surrounding these EU provisions are statutory and self-regulatory rules which can be particularly demanding on, for example, food behaviours and children. Some countries require "health messages" in advertising, and some sectors (food supplements for use in energy-restricted diets for weight reduction, inter alia) are heavily restricted, again by EU mandate transposed largely faithfully in most member states