Food law as a new branch of law

Food law is currently starting to separate itself as a new branch of law. It is gaining autonomy owing to its particular object of regulation, that is food, which requires a special system of protection; therefore the ‚product-oriented’ nature of this law must be emphasized. Nowadays, the purpose of food law is to protect health and life of human beings (food safety), as well as economic interests of consumers, the wellbeing of farm animals, the health of plants and of the natural environment. Food law worldwide has been developing since ancient times, and in Poland - since the Middle Ages. Following Poland’s accession to the European Union, it has been to a large extent unified with the EU laws. Food law is an academically separate area, it is taught at law departments of universities, numerous Master’s or Ph.D.’s theses have been devoted to this subject, as well as a habilitation thesis. The development of food law is clearly destined toward codification, whose weakness would be to consolidate the current regulatory loopholes. All the more so, codification is not currently possible under national legislation