FOOD LAW

GAY-ROSELL & SOLANO provides services in the area of practice of AGRI-FOOD LAW giving specialized, preventive, judicial and extrajudicial legal advice, adapting in each circumstance to the particular needs of each client.

As professional in the area of feeding we are aware that our advice has to be very practical, being constantly updated and has to be adapted to the specific needs of each Company or entity, seeking to contribute to our clients competitiveness.

Our lawyer Pilar Velázquez González, who has a Law Degree by the University of Valladolid and a European Law Degree by the University Libre of Brussels, directs the food law department. She has worked at the European Commission as a legal counsellor and as director of Food Law at the Spanish Federation of Feeding and Drink Industries (Federación Española de Indústrias de Alimentación y Bebidas (FIAB)).

She has participated in the design, development and application of the policy and European feeding legislation, both Spanish and international, permanently maintaining relationship with several agents in the world of feeding (agriculture, fishery, industry, distribution, restoration, etc.) in addition to numerous administrations both national and international.

Her work of counselling big and small food enterprises has given her a deep knowledge of the industry and of the business reality. Gives lectures, directs workshops and participates in masters concerning the subject.

GAY-ROSELL & SOLANO offers in the area of Food Law the following services:

• Advice concerning the legal requirements of compulsory compliance for the introduction in the Spanish, European and international market, food products, mainly: Food security, Quality, Composition, Ingredients, Scientific evaluation, health registration, General communication with the consumer, Presentation, Labelling, Promotions and Publicity, among others).
• Advice for the use of nutrition or health claims in the feeds (European Regulation 1924/2006), mainly:
  • Food claims.
  • Food requirements.
  • Food communication requirements.
  • Authorisation proceedings.
  • Scientific evaluation of the claims.
  • Industrial and Intellectual Property.
  • Patents and Brands.
• Advice in the management of food security, quality or communication (alerts, crisis, etc.):
  • Elaboration of manuals and procedures of incidents management.
  • Relationship with clients and suppliers.
  • Internal and external communication.
  • Relationship with the competent authority.
  • Risk evaluation.
  • Potential ally.
  • Immobilization, recovery or withdrawal of products.
  • Economic liability.
  • Insurance.
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• Advice in the management of claims or penalty proceedings:
  • Administrative litigation remedies.
  • Advice against consumer claims, distributors, restoration, administrations, etc.
  • Mediation.
• Participation in international, European or Spanish tenders in relation with feed, security, quality, publicity and food law.
• Education adapted to the necessities of the enterprise in relation with any aspect of the cited advice modalities: education of experts, directors or technicians of entities or enterprises that work in relation with the food, organisation and realisation of courses, lectures, conferences, workshops, etc.
• Legal reports concerning the existent legislation or in course of preparation, its interpretation or its application: briefing notes, reports or opinions concerning the interpretation of Spanish local, autonomous, European, etc. rules and the appropriateness of the proceedings.
• Surveillance of the European and Spanish food normative environment that may affect a specific product or industry:
  • Identification of future changes in legislation before they happen in order to enable the Enterprise to adapt without any economic loss.
  • Advice in order to influence the phase of processing rules and facilitate that the client’s interests are listened to and treated.
  • Advice for the adaptation or review of the current Spanish, European or international horizontal or sectorial legislation.
  • Quality rules, regulation of sanitary techniques, Codex standards, European directives or regulations, etc.
• Legal advice for the development of new products or food ingredients and definition of the communication strategies.
  • Strategic use of the nutritional or health properties of certain substances, ingredients or food for the launching of new products or new ways of communication with the consumer.
  • Processing of the European procedure for the authorisation of the so-called “novel food” according to the European regulation 258/1996.
  • Review and verification of the labelling and the publicity of the food products. Review of the labelling or presentation in the model or prototype phase.
  • Review of the publicity, promotion, brochures, electronic communications.