Food additives

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety unanimously adopted a report drafted by Åsa WESTLUND  (PES, SE) recommending some amendments to the Council's common position for adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on food additives. It reinserted several amendments that had not been taken up by the Council in its common position. The main amendments are as follows:

Scope: post-harvest pesticides like Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) used for conserving fruit and vegetables (mainly apples) shall fall within the scope of the regulation.

Environmental factors: a food additive may be included in the Community lists only if it meets certain ns and, other legitimate factors, including environmental factors.

Benefit to the consumer: there must be a reasonable technological need, in terms of benefits to the consumer, that cannot be achieved by other economically and technologically practicable means. There must, however, be no risk of the additive misleading the consumer into believing that the food contains ingredients other than those actually present.

Nanotechnology:a new clause states that when a food additive is already included in a Community list and there is a significant change in the production methods or the starting materials, or a change in particle size, for example through nanotechnology, the food additive prepared by those new methods or materials shall be considered as a different additive, and a new entry in the Community lists or change in the specifications shall be required before it can be placed on the market. This amendment aims to facilitate a compromise with the Council on nanotechnology.

Azo-dyes:  the labelling of food additives containing azo-dyes shall display the warning "azo-dyes may provoke allergenic effects and hyperactivity in children".

Enzymes: the Regulation shall not apply to food enzymes falling within the scope of the Regulation on enzymes with effect from the date of application of the Community list of food enzymes in accordance with Article 17 of that Regulation. The committee stated that it was necessary to prevent a temporary lowering of controls on currently unauthorised enzymes which have an additive function. Without this amendment such enzymes will not require authorisation until adoption of the Community list of enzymes.

Lastly, any GM product used for the production of additives already approved and included in the list of approved additives must also be approved in accordance with Regulation 1829/2003.