French President Emmanuel Macron drinks milk | Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images Belgium calls for EU help against French gastronationalism A food labeling regime in France has been widely accused of undermining the single market.

Belgium will next week call on the European Commission to tackle the increasingly contentious issue of a new food labeling regime in France that is widely accused of undermining the single market.

Belgium's protest focuses on Paris's approval last year of "origin labels" that force companies to tell consumers whether the milk and processed meat in their products is sourced domestically. While farmers support such measures, many companies have long complained that such labels inspire gastronationalism and undermine the single market by encouraging people to buy local.

Belgium has taken the case further by producing the first hard evidence that origin labels have undermined its farm sales to France. It circulated a briefing document ahead of next week's meeting showing that meat and dairy exports to France fell 17 percent in 2016 compared to 2015 — and added that they are still falling.

"These figures of the sector show that the internal market is under pressure because of this national initiative," the government said. “By comparison, the export of dairy from Belgium to similar markets (Germany and the Netherlands …) remained stable over the same period,” it added.

Belgium will raise its complaint at a meeting of EU farm ministers that begins on Monday.

France was the first EU country to adopt origin labels in the grip of a dairy crisis that collapsed milk prices. Paris was then followed by a string of countries including Italy and Portugal.