The function of food law. On objectives of food law, legitimate factors and interests taken into account

This article analyses the effect of the legislature’s choice to lay down in Article 5 of the General Food Law a limited and closed set of objectives to be pursued by food law. If taken seriously, this provision may make it difficult to reach a fair balance of interests. In particular, commercial interests seem to be excluded from the legislature’s balancing of interests. Interests of the food industry are mainly protected through the principle of proportionality as operationalised in Article 6 GFL from which follows that only those burdens may be imposed that on the basis of scientific risk assessment can be considered necessary. The scope of this protection, however, is limited by legislation purportedly based on the precautionary principle reversing the burden of scientific proof