Food products in general (ICS code(s): 67)

Protection of Public Health Law (Food) (Amendment No. 9 and Temporary Provisions) (Expanding the Adoption of European law and its streamlining, and removing barriers to importing food through the European compliance route), 5784-2024; (48 page(s), in Hebrew)

The Israeli Parliament (The Knesset) approved the proposed amendment to the 'Protection of Public Health Law (Food) (Amendment No. 9 and Temporary Provisions) (Expanding the Adoption of European law and its streamlining and removing barriers to importing food through the European compliance route), 5784-2024' in the first reading. This amendment promotes and extends the food reform implemented in 2021, which aims to reduce the cost of living and is based on the European model.

The major changes introduced in this amendment are as follows:

1.    Simplifies and streamlines the procedures for updating changes in European law and delegates the updating authority to the Food Service Director;

2.    Adopts an additional 24 European food Directives and Regulations, including food labeling, food additives, and substances that come into contact with food, and creates harmonization and compatibility between Israeli and European food safety legislation (detailed in the Second Annex A) and details all the exclusions in Second Annex B;

3.    Promotes significant ease to the importation of food marketed in the EU for Authorized Economic Operator AEO ("Appropriate Importer");

4.    Extends the obligation to manage a self-safety system to all food distributors. This requirement is necessary to regulate food labeling similar to that in Europe, especially for labeling foods that cause allergy or intolerance.