Directive 2011/91/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on indications or marks identifying the lot to which a foodstuff belongs (codification) Text with EEA relevance
Data as of 2026-07-04 · Compiled from an official source version. Later amendments or repeals may not be reflected; the official text prevails. · Read the official text ↗
1. This Directive concerns the indication which allows identification of the lot to which a foodstuff belongs. 2. For the purposes of this Directive, ‘lot’ means a batch of sales units of a foodstuff produced, manufactured or packaged under practically the same conditions.
1. A foodstuff may not be marketed unless it is accompanied by an indication as referred to in Article 1(1). 2. Paragraph 1 shall not apply: (a) to agricultural products which, on leaving the holding, are: (i) sold or delivered to temporary storage, preparation or packaging stations; (ii) transported to producers’ organisations; or (iii) collected for immediate integration into an operational preparation or processing system; (b) when, at the point of sale to the ultimate consumer, the foodstuffs are not prepackaged, are packaged at the request of the purchaser or are prepackaged for immediate sale; (c) to packagings or containers the largest side of which has an area of less than 10 cm 2 ; (d) to individual portions of ice cream. The indication enabling the lot to be identified shall appear on the combined package.
The lot shall be determined in each case by the producer, manufacturer or packager of the foodstuff in question, or the first seller established within the Union. The indication referred to in Article 1(1) shall be determined and affixed under the responsibility of one or other of those operators. It shall be preceded by the letter ‘L’ except in cases where it is clearly distinguishable from the other indications on the label.
When the foodstuffs are prepackaged, the indication referred to in Article 1(1) and, where appropriate, the letter ‘L’ shall appear on the prepackaging or on a label attached thereto. When the foodstuffs are not prepackaged, the indication referred to in Article 1(1) and, where appropriate, the letter ‘L’ shall appear on the packaging or on the container or, failing that, on the relevant commercial documents. It shall in all cases appear in such a way as to be easily visible, clearly legible and indelible.
When the date of minimum durability or ‘use by’ date appears on the label, the indication referred to in Article 1(1) need not appear on the foodstuff, provided that the date consists at least of the uncoded indication of the day and the month in that order.
This Directive shall apply without prejudice to the indications laid down by specific provisions of the Union. The Commission shall publish and keep up to date a list of the provisions in question.
Directive 89/396/EEC, as amended by the Directives listed in Annex I, Part A, is repealed, without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States relating to the time limits for transposition into national law of the Directives set out in Annex I, Part B. References to the repealed Directive shall be construed as references to this Directive and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex II.
This Directive shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
ANNEX I PART A Repealed Directive with list of its successive amendments (referred to in Article 7) Council Directive 89/396/EEC ( OJ L 186, 30.6.1989, p. 21 ) Council Directive 91/238/EEC ( OJ L 107, 27.4.1991, p. 50 ) Council Directive 92/11/EEC ( OJ L 65, 11.3.1992, p. 32 ) PART B List of time limits for transposition into national law (referred to in Article 7) Directive Time limit for transposition 89/396/EEC 20 June 1990 ( *1 ) 91/238/EEC — 92/11/EEC — ( *1 ) In accordance with the first paragraph of Article 7 of Directive 89/396/EEC, as amended by Directive 92/11/EEC: ‘Member States shall, where necessary, amend their laws, regulations or administrative provisions so as to: — authorise trade in products complying with this Directive by not later than 20 June 1990, — prohibit trade in products not complying with this Directive with effect from 1 July 1992. However, trade in products placed on the market or labelled before that date and not conforming with this Directive may continue until stocks run out.’.
ANNEX II Correlation table Directive 89/396/EEC This Directive Article 1 Article 1 Article 2(1) and (2) Article 2(1) and (2) Article 2(3) — Articles 3 to 6 Articles 3 to 6 Article 7 — — Article 7 — Article 8 Article 8 Article 9 — Annex I — Annex II
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