The Commission took good note of the European Parliament resolution on mandatory indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for certain foods, as adopted on 13 May 2016.

The Commission has adopted three reports on origin of foods[1]. The reports were based on the studies conducted by external contractors who in turn were responsible for broad stakeholder consultation throughout the Union and extrapolation of data using a representative sample of concerned stakeholders.

All reports show that, in spite of consumers' interest for information on origin, at EU level consumers' overall willingness to pay for this information is often questionable. Mandatory origin labelling would lead to additional production costs and would be burdensome. Origin of raw material often varies to optimise costs. Mandatory origin labelling would add to the rigidity of the supply chain, lower the competitiveness of food producers and impact international trade. The Commission therefore confirms that voluntary origin labelling at EU level combined with existing mandatory origin labelling regimes for specific foods or categories of food, allows consumers to choose products with specific origins if they want to, while it does not affect the competitiveness of food business operators.

• [1] Commission Report regarding the mandatory origin labelling for meat used as an ingredient, COM(2013)0755, dated 17.12.2013; Commission Report on the mandatory indication of the country of origin or place of provenance for milk, milk used as an ingredient in dairy products and types of meat other than beef, swine, sheep, goat and poultry meat, COM(2015)0205, 20.5.2015; Commission Report on unprocessed foods, single ingredient products and ingredients that constitute over 50% of a food, COM(2015)0204, 20.5.2015.