The consumer of foodstuffs in the European Union. Origin, evolution and legislative requirements for food information to consumers.

In the present study on the protection of the consumer of foodstuffs in the European Union, reference will be specifically made to the history and policy of consumerism and to the complex protection of the food consumer as a specific category. The issue of information about foods needs indeed to be analysed from both the producer's and the consumer's perspectives. The producer must inform; the consumer has the right to be informed. Non-contractual liability as protection of the food consumer is the key of the study paper together with the protection of health as the right to information and labelling claims. Chapter I refers to the EU consumer protection policy and to the development of the movement in Europe. Importance is given to the notion of consumer as fundamental party in the contracts governed by EU law, to both producer's duty to inform and the consumer's right to be informed. That does not concern the final consumer of foodstuffs specifically, but rather the “consumer” in all the types of contracts in which the consumer is included. Chapter II analyzes the area of food and nutrition information as a goal for the European policy- makers and the European Union's regime for regulating health claims made on food in commercial communications. A deep study of the Reg. 1924/2006 on nutrition information and health claims is conducted. Chapter III refers to Reg. 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers as a corollary of the European system of consumer protection. The final part of the paper is indeed focused on the food labelling in the new EU legislation and to the concept of the so-called average consumer and to the role of the label. The right to information can be considered as the synthesis of the obligations imposed to the producer, of the legal instruments needed for communication and most of all, of the relation between who informs and who receives. Thus, the status of the consumer is a new status. He/she tends to be more and more informed and aware. Food safety nowadays does not only protect from unfair practices and promotes health protection. It also pursues another interest: the interest to be informed.