Food law, by
concept, is the codified collection of laws and regulations that govern food
through the three stages of production, distribution, and consumption. Food
laws mainly aim to protect potential consumers and provide for the
efficient growth and use of food products. Food attorneys focus their
careers on helping clients comply with food laws and regulations. Besides, they
work on behalf of government agencies making or enforcing food laws and
policies.
Food laws
are primarily enacted to protect potential consumers against unsafe,
adulterated, and misbranded food, while also facilitating the movement of food
and associated food products across national and international state borders
for humanitarian aid or economic purposes. While discussing fortified foods,
potential consumers must be protected from receiving either toxic or
nutritionally ineffective levels of nutrients.
Legislation, therefore, becomes necessary
to require adequate control over this fortification process by food processors
to ensure that levels of nutrients are consistently kept within acceptable
limits. The legislation is also required to prohibit the addition of nutrients
in food products where it is nutritionally and wholly unnecessary or unsafe, or
where fortification through adding excess nutrients may create an erroneous
impression concerning the nutritional value of the food/food product.
Any
legislation involving food fortification should include the standards,
recommendations, and guidelines prescribed by the government and the health
ministry of said country. The primary purpose of these laws is to make food
businesses do what they can to assure that their product is safe for
consumption: prohibit food businesses from taking actions that will render
their product unsafe; assure that their consumers have the necessary
information needed to make their decisions; prohibit businesses from providing
misleading information to their consumers; provide their consumers with an
opportunity to learn about nutrition, food preparation techniques, and
understanding and using information about food products wisely. If stringent food
laws are not in place, then it becomes easy for food companies/brands/exporters
to take undue advantage of the lax regulations and make a practice of duping
their potential consumer base with adulterated and substandard food/food
products. This could lead to food-induced viruses and infections and the spread
of stomach ailments among the consumer base.
Food
lawyers’
study, use, and create rules and regulations to improve food nexus. The client
can be a chef, the city or federal government, a non-profit organization, or a
farmer. The work of food lawyers touches every area of law: zoning,
contracts, environmental, constitutional, international, trade, patents, animal
and human rights, immigration. Being a food lawyer requires
interdisciplinary thinking and an intensive knowledge of different types of
legalities and litigation and using the existing legal system in inventive ways
to protect the consumers. Food lawyers almost always offer more than
other regular lawyers as they know the technicalities of food regulations and
the conditions of food production and retailing. Food law is rarely
taught at universities as a course. It is a skill that is acquired through
years of practice and by being very closely associated with the food sector.
