New Draft Proposal on Infringements of the provisions concerning the designations of milk and milk products

On May 26, 2025, Italy notified a new draft legislative proposal in the TRIS system concerning infringements related to the use of designations for milk and milk products.

The proposal aims to combat the growing misuse of milk and milk products designations in relation to food products made from plant ingredients or where milk ingredients have been wholly or partially replaced by ingredients of other origin.

The draft law establishes administrative fines for anyone who produces, packages, holds, sells, offers for sale, places on the market, transfers in any capacity or advertises foodstuffs by any means under names which misappropriate, imitate or evoke the designation of milk or the designations of milk product in infringement of the provisions of Annex VII to EU Regulation No 1308/2013.

The administrative fines range from a minimum of €4,000 to a maximum of €32,000, or 3% of the offender’s total annual turnover in the most recent financial year closed prior to the establishment of the infringement, where that amount exceeds  €32,000.

The penalty may also include the seizure of the goods and of any materials or media used to commit the infringement and their potential confiscation and destruction.

These sanctions also apply when the names are accompanied by explanatory or descriptive terms indicating the plant-based origin of the product (e.g. “soy milk” or “oat milk”) or negative qualifiers (e.g. “non-dairy”) alongside the protected designations.

The standstill period under the TRIS procedure ends on August 27, 2025. Until then, the draft cannot be formally adopted, and other EU Member States or the European Commission may issue comments or detailed opinions.