Food additives

The European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution amending the Council’s common position for adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on food additives. The recommendation for second reading (under the codecision procedure) had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Asa WESTLUND (PES, SE) on behalf of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

The amendments were the result of a compromise between the Council and the Parliament. The main amendments - adopted under 2nd reading of the codecision procedure - were as follows:

Consumer protection: Parliament stressed that the purpose of the Regulation is to ensure the effective functioning of the internal market whilst ensuring a high level of protection of human health and a high level of consumer protection, including protection of consumer interests and fair practices in food trade;

Enzymes: the Regulation shall not apply to food enzymes falling within the scope of  the Regulation on food enzymes, with effect from the date of adoption of the Community list of food enzymes in accordance with Article 17 of that Regulation;

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

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.

Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003: where a food additive already included in the Community list is produced from a different source falling within the scope of Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, it will not require a new authorisation under this Regulation, as long as the new source is covered by an authorisation in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and the food additive complies with the specifications established under this Regulation.

Labelling requirement for foods containing certain food colours: the labelling of food containing the food colours listed in Annex V to this Regulation shall include the additional information set out in that Annex. The new Annex V lists the food colours referred to for which the labelling of foods shall include additional information. They include Sunset yellow (E 110), Quinoline yellow (E 104), Carmoisine (E 122), Allura red (E 129) Tartrazine (E 102) and Ponceau 4R (E 124). These must be accompanied by the words “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”The list excludes those foods where the colour(s) has been used for the purposes of health or other marking on meat products or for stamping or decorative colouring on eggshells. Where necessary as a result of scientific progress or technical development, Annex V shall be amended by measures in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.  Foods placed on the market or labelled before 18 months after the date of entry into force of the Regulation which do not comply with this provision may be marketed until their date of minimum durability or use-by-date.