Quality seal

Quality seals with and without added explanatory value

Quality seals on packaged foods

Consumers encounter a variety of quality seals on packaged foods. It depends on the packaging design whether this tends to inform or confuse the average consumer. And of course, customers are very different for their part, one wants to know, the other may not, one brings prior knowledge of the meaning and criteria of some seals, the other is left wondering.

EU seal laboratory

For a few seals, such as "EU Organic Seal", "Protected Geographical Indication", "Protected Designation of Origin", "Traditional Specialty Guaranteed" and "Without Genetic Engineering", there are legal regulations regarding the requirements and eligibility for use. The vast majority of all other quality labels are only subject to the prohibition of misleading the consumer with regard to foodstuffs from a legal point of view. In a ruling published in 2016 / 1 /, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) equated advertising with test marks to advertising with test results and required that information on the test criteria and the type of tests carried out be made available. The BGH considered the effort that the defendant would have had to make in order to provide the required information to be justified. The consumer could expect to be able to check the background and thus independently assess whether the test marks contained reliable and accurate statements.

However, the BGH ( government) did not require that the required information be contained in the advertisement itself. It would have been sufficient if the advertisement had contained a reference, e.g. to an Internet page, under which more detailed information is available to the consumer. Test marks are comparable to test results.

This requirement to enable the reader of the seal to access information about the criteria and results of the specific product is not met by the vast majority of all non-legally regulated quality seals on today's packaging.