Food access and commercialization in integrated markets: a bridge linking private and public aspects

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze what are the changes in the legal regulation on food in the European Union (EU) and in the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) that have occurred in recent times to account for the impact on the actions of legal and natural persons as consumers in integrated spaces. It starts from the premise that -currently- there are three purposes pursued by legislation issued both locally and regionally: food safety, quality and competitiveness. The regional legal framework must ensure that the rules applied to food allow a wide offer to ensure competition in the regional market, and at the same time that food is safe and of high quality so that consumers have the possibility of choosing freely. The jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), exemplifies, through its interpretation - in selected cases - of the norms concerning the multiple facets - from the introduction and circulation (commercialization) of a food in the regional market- and allows reflection from the public (member states-third states) and private (operators and consumers) spheres on the importance of the rules. The main data collection technique used -in this work- is the analysis of documentation from the EU regulatory framework, both original and secondary law - in particular, Parliament and Council regulations, or directives - as well as the analysis of jurisprudence of the CJEU, through which secondary data is collected -mainly Decisions of the Common Market Council (CMC), Resolutions of the Common Market Group (GMC), Directives of the Common Market Trade Commission (CCM)-. In relation to the data analysis procedures, qualitative and comparative analyses are used.