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Food enzymes

2006/0144(COD)

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 enzymes and amending Council Directive 83/417/EEC, Council Regulation (EC) No 1493/1999, Directive 2000/13/EC, Council Directive 2001/112/EC and Regulation (EC) No 258/97. The recommendation for second reading (under the codecision procedure) had been tabled for consideration in plenary by Avril DOYLE (EPP-ED, IE) 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 the 2nd reading of the codecision procedure – are as follows:

- the risk assessments of the Authority for individual enzymes should be published as soon as they are completed;

- Parliament stressed that the objectives are the effective functioning of the internal market, a high level of protection of human health and a high level of consumer protection;

- Parliament clarified the notion of misleading the consumer. This includes, but is not limited to, issues related to the nature, freshness and quality of ingredients used, the naturalness of a product or of the production process, or the nutritional quality of the product;

- a recital the precautionary principle should be part of any assessment;

- where a food enzyme 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 enzyme complies with the specifications established under this Regulation;

- in terms of labelling requirements, Parliament felt that the wording 'a sales description which includes the name of each food enzyme' should be replaced by the nomenclature of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB).