The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine has recently (at 28 May 2012) adopted changes into the Technical regulations on the rules for labelling of nutrition products ("Technical Regulations"). The Order of the Ministry introducing respective changes in the Technical Regulations has been already registered by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine at 15 June 2012 and will come into force once upon publication in the official governmental newspaper "Standards".

Some of the most important changes introduced into the Technical Regulations may be summarized as follows:

§ contrary to the previous edition of the Technical Regulations pursuant to which labelling of nutrition products should have contained information as to the product contents with obligatory indication of quantity of ingredients (components), the new version of the Technical Regulations requires indication of quantity of ingredients (components) on the product's label only if the name of the product is linked with the name of its main ingredients;

§ pursuant to the new edition of Technical Regulations it is required to add to the name of nutrition products information as to their specific properties, physical condition or special processing applied for the product (e.g. powdered, dried, concentrated, etc.), however, only in case if absence of such information may mislead the consumers;

§ the new version of Technical Regulations does not qualify ferments which were used for processing of nutrition products as the ingredients of the product;

§ in accordance with the new version of Technical Regulations it is prohibited to indicate or refer to curative properties of the product encouraging prevention, healing and treatment of any disease on the labelling of nutrition products;

§ the new edition of Technical Regulations requires that labelling of nutrition products shall obligatory contain information as to genetically modified organisms in the product's contents;

§ pursuant to the new Technical Regulations labelling of nutrition products which were produced outside of Ukraine but were packaged in Ukraine shall contain information as to the country of their origin (in case if absence of such information may mislead the consumers);

§ according to the new Technical Regulations labelling of nutrition products which were packaged with the use of preservative gases shall contain the respective information on application of such gases.

In addition to the above it shall be mentioned that the producers of nutrition products will be able to use packaging materials without application of requirements stipulated by the new edition Technical Regulations during 18 months from the moment of their coming into effect.

Please do not hesitate to contact us in case if you have any questions to the above or need some further clarifications in this regard.

Natalia Pakhomovska
Legal Director
T +380 44 490 9589
natalia.pakhomovska@dlapiper.com

Roman Inozemtsev
Associate
T +380 44 490 9591
roman.inozemtsev@dlapiper.com

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