EC identification and health marks

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This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Legislation was updated in 2024 and abbreviations of the identification marks referring to the ‘European Union’ should replace the previous ‘European Community’, therefore abolishing "EC" in terms of the name that this present article uses to refer to the marks. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (September 2024)

Identification marks and health marks are the oval-shaped markings found on food products of animal origin in the European Community, required by European Union food safety regulations. It identifies the processing establishment that produced and packaged the product and that is therefore responsible for its hygiene status. These marks are meant as a monitoring and tracking aid for food safety and customs inspectors, and each food processing facility dealing with food products of animal origin is required to keep records of its trading partners and their approval numbers (in the case they process said food products), both for buying and selling. The identification and health marks are not an indication for the specific origin of a particular piece of food by themselves, as they do not encode the location of the farm that provided the initial raw product or livestock.