WeeklySA_AdminNEW REGULATIONS: Chicory cannot be classified as such
By Thuli Zungu
Come October 30th of October 2021 coffee lovers will start enjoying the best of it when the new R1154 regulations relating to coffee, chicory and related products will come into force.22 Last October the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development issued the R1154 coffee regulations in terms of the legislation that allows them to set standards for agricultural products.
The regulations specify 12 different categories of coffee, chicory and related products that range from pure coffee to pure chicory, this includes mixed coffee or coffee mixture which must be at least 75 % ground coffee.
There you have it.! Anything less that is less than that, reject it with the contempt it deserves, as it would be fong kong coffee and outlawed. Currently Ricoffy only has 32.5 percent chicory and therefore can’t be classified as coffee or mixed coffee.
Before this regulation there was no specific food law to regulate all of these different coffee and chicory products under the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act or the Agricultural Products Standards Act. However, the Consumer Protection Act is relevant in terms of the misleading names that have been used to describe these products, said Janusz Luterek. Luterek is a senior partner, Patent Attorney and Professional Engineer at Hahn & Hahn Attorneys.
Hahn & Hahn is the only South African member of the Food Lawyers Network (FLN), an international network of food lawyers around the world and through this network they are able to assist clients to get advice in other jurisdictions as well.
Luterek, in his article on Consumer and Food law, says that food law can be described as the intersection of all the various laws which regulate food sale, production, processing, and distribution, and food science and engineering to enable a thorough and practical understanding of these laws.
Luterek said the promulgation of the R1154 coffee regulations is a step in the right direction as prior to this these products remained fairly unregulated in terms of the specific requirements, standards and categories of these products.
The Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act and Agricultural Products Standards Act did not have a regulation dealing with coffee and chicory products up until now.
In addition, each of the relevant Acts have a plethora of sometimes overlapping regulations promulgated thereunder to which the South African National Standards should be added, some of which are compulsory depending on the foodstuff concerned, he said An example of the complexity is the labelling of Genetically Modified foodstuffs where the Department of Health has a regulation requiring labelling of foodstuffs where its nutritional nature has been altered and even permitting its functional claims, he said.
Luterek said the Consumer Protection Act requires the labelling of all foodstuffs which have in excess of 5% GM content to be labelled, without change, “Contains Genetically Modified Organisms”.
He said that these Acts and Regulations are constantly being revised and updated, often without due concern for how changes to one affect other related Acts and Regulations. There are also allied fields of Sport and Health Supplements and Cosmetics which have their own regulatory regimes, Luterek said
