Food and Beverage, Law & IP Summit: Coca-Cola talks trade secrets

Coca-Cola’s legal counsel has said that increasing pressure from consumer groups and government bodies for more transparency around confectionery products is adding to the difficulty of protecting its trade secrets.

Cristina Rossi, European food law counsel for the Coca-Cola Company, told attendees today (June 2) at the Food and Beverage, Law & IP Summit in London that protecting trade secrets is invaluable to the company.

She said: "It is all very well having sanctions, but once the beans are spilt, it’s too late."

Inspectors for health authorities will often request information for recipes for products, which Rossi said leads to a question of “proportionality” about how much information the brand should give.

But she concluded that it is important to “enter into dialogue” with the authorities and that it comes down to a “question of confidence” that information will not be leaked later on.

But, she said that certain requests made to Coca-Cola in the past have been difficult to answer because often products will be gained from third party suppliers, which also have their own trade secrets that they wish to protect.

Rossi was participating in a wider discussion on the issues of protecting trade secrets in the EU.

Mirjam Sieber, a consultant at the German Federation for Food Law and Food Science, said trade secrets are a “valuable business asset” to food manufacturers.

But the lack of clarity on what constitutes a trade secret differs between member states, Sieber said.

Sieber concluded that an upcoming EU trade secrets bill currently in development will further improve harmonisation but will not go far enough in protecting food brands from official demands for disclosure, such as Freedom of Information requests.

The Legal Affairs Committee at the European Parliament is discussing a draft of the European directive 2013/0402, which seeks to harmonise protection for trade secrets across the EU.

The Food & Beverage, Law & IP summit took place at the London Stock Exchange today.