El caso de la norma 1169/2011 de la Unión Europa, publicada en noviembre de 2011 con una nueva regulación en torno a la información sobre productos alimenticios, entró en vigor en diciembre de 2014.

El Catálogo Electrónico como herramienta de Normas en alimentos.
The case 1169/2011 de la Unión Europea.

The purpose of this regulation is to ensure that consumers can make informed purchases have access to product-related content such as nutritional values, ingredients, and instructions for use. También se establece los requerimientos de los datos, to be provided to the consumer, related to any food product sold online. La regulación requiere información específica, llamada “particularidades obligatorias”, listed on product labels prepackaged.

The following information should be shown on the labels of food products pre-packaged:

• - The name of the food
• - The list of ingredients
• - Process or any ingredient which may cause allergies or intolerances used in manufacturing or food preparation and in the final product containing, even in an altered form (List of allergies that must be declared are in the annex to the regulation).
• - The amount and kind of ingredients.
• - The net amount of food.
• - The expiration date or "sell before:"
• - Any special conditions of storage and / or conditions of use.
• - The name and address of the business operator under which the product name is marked (or the names of importers if the food business operator is outside the European Union).
• - The country of origin or place of manufacture of which is provided in Article 26.
• - Instructions for appropriate use of food (if they are necessary for the use of the product).
• - The current strength of alcohol by volume (if the volume is 1.2% or more).
• - Nutritional declaration.

Los alérgenos descritos en el punto “C” deben de ser comunicados al consumidor cuando sean presentados en un alimento que no es pre-empacado pero es vendido también en retail o por un proveedor de alimentos (for example: cafés and restaurants).

Article 14 regulation provides that when a pre-packaged food is offered for sale by means of distance communication, All "compulsory particulars", except day, must be in the support material of distance selling (usually via Internet) and also that they are in the time of delivery. The business must provide the necessary data on the site on-line chains advance (although not a legal requirement) then you can design web pages with the information contained. Communication Standard GS1 usually ensures that relevant data available so you can find what is required. Así los datos deben de estar disponibles en el material utilizado en la venta a distancia antes de que la compra se concluya y en el momento de la entrega.

Dado que la mayor cantidad de compañías en este sector son miembros de GS1, se comisionó a Mason, Hayes & Curraan, office with experience in the food and beverage and legislation of the European Union, to assess the impact of these new regulations on manufacturers and retailers of packaged foods. The conclusions were:

• regulation on food information requires a significant amount of data is available to the consumer before the purchase of pre-packed food website or other distance selling;
• this mandatory information should be available on or through the Website (without charge to the consumer) before purchase;
• whether the information before the purchase is not available, the product can not be sold through the site;
• if the owner of the trademark is not available to the retailer relevant information on the website through a user-friendly format, will be difficult for the retail marketing of products through your website;
• a system of cooperation is required between the brand owner retailer to ensure that the required information is complete and consistent consumer before purchase.

The regulation establishes the limit of liability to organizations involved in the food supply chain in order to make the same information available on the product packaging, what is the consumer when they buy online.

Data communication between trading partners

The regulation makes businesses are responsible for the presence of the quality of information required, also others such as food suppliers manufacturers, food suppliers outlets and retails also have responsibilities. These require effective communication of product data across the supply chain. Todas las particularidades obligatorias en la regulación pueden ser comunicadas utilizando los datos estándar de GS1 y esta es la mejor manera de asegurar que todas las compañías dentro de la cadena de suministro puedan entender y usar la información de cada uno. Además de los estándares de GS1 se provee tecnologías para compartir comunicación efectiva:

• El mecanismo preferido para comunicar información es vía GDSN (Red global de sincronización de datos). Un proveedor que brinda datos a una base de datos certificada puede hacer viable a cualquiera o a todos sus socios comerciales que están conectados en la red datos de validación que están integrados.
• Algunos retailers no pueden conectarse con el GDSN pero pueden acceder a información relevante de los productos para brindar a los consumidores (como contrario los datos de negocio a negocio) de GS1 Source (fuente confiable de datos).
• GS1 también tiene estándares de mensajes electrónicos de datos intercambiables (EDI) para comunicar datos maestros del producto. Esto es EANCOM Precio–mensaje de catálogo (PRICAT) que también incluye todos los datos obligatorios de la regulación Europea 1169/2011. GS1 en Europa ha publicado tablas mostrando como la información obligatoria de la norma EU 1169/2011 corresponde a los estándares de GS1 en el GDSN, GS1 Source y los mensajes de PRICAT.

Data quality

GS1 en Europa y México ofrece servicios que ayudan a asegurar que los datos de los productos son de alta calidad, say:

• Data Quality Framework (DQF for its acronym in English): recommendations on internal processes to support teachers in creating high quality data data.
• Validations GDSN: GDSN compatible databases must perform many data validations and some offer additional validations for local market.
• Quality assurance: service comparison between the data and the product itself.
• Creating data: services product information transcribed from the same packaging and electronically provides the retails for online sales, sometimes with dimensional information and processes and images of special products for inclusion in web pages.

Administrar cambios en los productos

The difficulty arises when a food is modified so as to require mandatory data show modified label. In these circumstances there will be a period of time the old product versions and new coexist in the supply chain. During this period it is not possible for the retailer know if the version of the product ordered on the website will be available at the time and place chosen. This type of product changes require a new GTIN, which increases the possibility that the right product is available for collection and, but still, retail can automatically recognize whether the chosen version is different from the version that was ordered and notify the customer.

Future Solution

GS1 is developing new ways of working in the future be possible to distinguish variants of products without affecting the supply chain, but will not be possible to implement this solution until some time after the regulation is on the market.

Standards, GS1 solutions and services can help companies comply with the requirements relating to communication of data products related to distance selling and have good quality information.

Sources of interest

• GS1 in Europe (2014), EU Regulation on Food Information to Consumers “what you need to know!"Europe.
• GS1 in Europe (2014), EU Regulation on Food Information to Consumers “how to handle product variants when selling online”. Europe.
• GS1 in Europe (2014), GDSN Implementation Guidelines for EU Regulation 1169/2011 Mandatory Information V1.0. Europe.