Serving Europe
The aim of Serving Europe is to promote the understanding of the restaurant and coffee shop chain sector through an enhanced dialogue with policy makers and opinion leaders at a European level on matters affecting the modern restaurant sector (i.e.
ID: 36538072001-07
Lobbying Activity
Response to Circular Economy Act
16 Oct 2025
Serving Europe, representing the Branded Food and Beverage Service Chains sector, submits this response to the European Commissions Call for Evidence on the Circular Economy Act (CEA), emphasizing the following priorities that are essential to its success and to ensuring legal and business certainty: Coherence across legislation: The CEA should align with related initiatives (PPWR, Food Contact Materials (FCM), REACH, and others) to provide a clear and consistent regulatory framework. Legal and time certainty: Coordinated timelines and realistic transition periods are essential for businesses to plan investments, adapt operations and deliver on circular economy objectives. Recognition of industry-led solutions: Formal acknowledgment of sector-developed guidelines will support practical, non-discriminatory implementation across businesses of all sizes, fostering innovation and compliance. Optimisation of existing EPR schemes: Extended Producer Responsibility systems should be practical, environmentally effective, economically viable, and industry-led. Crucially, they should be harmonised across Member States to avoid fragmentation, reduce administrative burdens and ensure a level playing field for businesses. Partnership for delivery: Serving Europe and its members remain committed to working with policymakers to drive measurable progress, safeguard food safety, and maintain consumer trust. Serving Europe's full answer is available in the accompanying the document.
Read full responseResponse to Modernisation of the EU legislation for on-farm animal welfare for certain animals
16 Jul 2025
Serving Europe, the Branded Food and Beverage Service Chains Association in Europe, appreciates the opportunity to comment on the call for evidence aimed at modernizing animal welfare legislation for certain on-farm animals. This revision presents a valuable opportunity for the EU to reaffirm its global leadership in promoting sustainable and ethical food systems, building on the legacy of the Green Deal and Farm to Fork strategies, and advancing the Vision for Agriculture's goals of a more resilient agrifood sector. Serving Europe and its members remain fully committed to delivering high-quality, responsibly sourced food products, recognizing animal welfare as a key pillar of product integrity, consumer trust, and long-term supply chain sustainability and competitiveness. Building on this commitment, the sector stands ready to work collaboratively with EU institutions and stakeholders to ensure that revised legislation delivers practical, harmonized improvements in animal welfare supported by clear, workable frameworks that uphold sustainability, innovation, and competitiveness throughout the supply chain. The attached document emphasizes the importance of promoting fair competition through WTO-compliant import regulations, ensuring business and supply chain continuity with clear guidance and transitional measures, and supporting a structured phase-out of cage systems to achieve a successful transition while preserving supply chain resilience.
Read full response7 Jul 2017
Serving Europe welcomes the opportunity to comment on the draft proposal for a European Commission (EC) Regulation aimed at minimising acrylamide formation in certain foods. The proposed combination of mitigation measures and benchmark levels to assess measures’ effectiveness is a pragmatic and sound approach to protect consumer health. Customers’ safety is a top priority for Serving Europe members. That said, Serving Europe would like to make specific remarks on provisions/requirements that would benefit from clarification and/or text improvements.
RECITAL 15: MAXIMUM LEVELS
The current draft of Recital 15 appears premature. It suggests that the EU should take further regulatory steps in the short-term without first implementing and testing in practice the approach developed in this Regulation.
ARTICLE 2: MITIGATION MEASURES
-Article 2(2) should clarify that only FBOs placing on the market for the first time foods listed in Article 1(2) are responsible for ensuring that the producers of those foods have taken the appropriate mitigation measures set down in Annex I, not all actors in the market trading or distributing such foods (“placing on the market”).
-In Article 2(3), the reference to “larger, interconnected operation” is too vague to enable proper enforcement of the legislation. Reference to objective criteria would be needed.
ANNEX 3: SAMPLES & ANALYSIS
Serving Europe:
-agrees with the main elements of Annex 3, but it believes that restructuring and clarification would make Annex 3 easier to understand and apply;
-welcomes the proposal to allow sampling and analysis of “product types” as opposed to individual products. Where foods are prepared according to standardised procedures required to stores part of a larger network and centrally supplied, central sampling and testing is an effective approach;
-welcomes the possibility to substitute analysis with a simpler process when acrylamide levels are statistically correlated to product or process attributes, but believes that, to avoid diverging interpretation at national level, the EC should create a list of such product types and processes, potentially in consultation with Member States and FBOs.
ANNEX 2, PART B: LIABILITY OF FBOs ALONG THE CHAIN
-Section 1 seems incorrectly drafted. It appears that the intention of the EC is that FBOs covered by Part B of Annex 2 shall accept products only from FBOs that have applied the required mitigation measures. However, the English text as currently drafted says that such FBOs are obliged to take products from (any) FBO that has taken mitigation measures. That is clearly not the EC’s real intention; this provision needs to be corrected in consequence.
-FBOs cannot be held responsible for guaranteeing that a supplier has taken acrylamide mitigation measures in supplied products (unclear how this requirement would be enforceable). The same approach also applies to FBOs purchasing/supplying coffee with regard to the requirements of Section 4. A declaration by the supplier that it complies with this Regulation and takes mitigation measures in line with Annex I should suffice. This should be explicitly clarified in both cases.
-The requirement to source products only from suppliers that have taken the required mitigation measures currently applies only to FBOs covered by Part B of Annex II. However, for rigorous protection of public health, this should apply to all FBOs. Therefore, Section I and 4 should be moved, in Annex II, from Part B to Part A.
DOMESTIC FOOD PREPARATION
Acrylamide formation can occur at household level as well as in foods produced/cooked out of home. To protect EU citizens’ health, Member States should be required to conduct consumer awareness-raising campaigns recommending storing, processing and cooking procedures.
GUIDANCE
The EC should prepare implementation guidelines to help competent national authorities and FBOs interpret these new EU requirements in a harmonised way.
Read full responseMeeting with Stefaan Hermans (Cabinet of Commissioner Marianne Thyssen)
19 Jul 2016 · Jobs and growth
Meeting with Juho Romakkaniemi (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)
19 Jul 2016 · Jobs and growth