2016-11 ELC to become ‘EU Specialty Food Ingredients” next year

A new page of the federation’s history was written at the Annual General Meeting when the General Assembly of Members agreed to change the abbreviation “ELC”, the interest and meaning of which triggers interrogations from our interlocutors nowadays, to “EU Specialty Food Ingredients”, whilst maintaining the official denomination “Federation of European Specialty Food Ingredients Industries”. A new logo was unveiled to the Members, and the change will be progressively implemented in ELC communications next year.

The Federation was created in The Netherlands in 1983 by some leading associations in the additive and enzyme sectors, under the name “ELC”, which stands for European Liaison Committee.

In 1992 the association moved to Brussels, to allow members to be more closely linked to the policy discussions which started around that time to create the first European harmonised legislative framework for food additives and processing aids. The membership grew up to around 20 sectorial and national associations, and ELC became known as the Federation of European Food Additives and Food Enzymes Industries, and as from 2005 as the Federation of European Food Additives, Food Enzymes and Food Cultures Industries.

At the end of 2010, strategic decisions were made in order to re-shape the Federation and to give it the place it deserved in the representation of the food ingredients sector towards the European authorities. The Federation acquired a legal personality as an international non-for profit organisation (aisbl), the membership was open to both companies and associations. In addition, the governance structure was adjusted by the creation of Committees and Working Groups. In order to better reflect the important role of our sector in the food value chain, the name was changed to Federation of European Specialty Food Ingredients Industries, still abbreviated as “ELC”.  Today 19 sectorial and national associations and 20 corporate companies are cooperating to positioning the federation as THE voice of the European specialty food ingredients sector in the European Union and on the international scene.

The new abbreviation speaks for itself and will thus make our sector easier recognisable and more visible.