Human consumption: new sweeteners additives, sucralose and salt of aspartame (amend. Directive 94/35/EC)

The common position is based on the Commission's amended proposal that took several amendments proposed by the European parliament into account. It has been adopted by the Council by unanimity. The Council has accepted - either word by word or in substance - the two European Parliament's amendments as set out in the Commission's amended proposal. It has however changed the deadline for the prohibition of use of products not conforming with the Directive to 18 months after the entry into force. Furthermore, the Council has followed the Commission's amended proposal in reducing the authorised levels for cyclamates for water-based drinks as well as drinks based on milk or fruit-juice as proposed by the European Parliament, to 250 mg/l. While this level is greater than the 100 mg/l proposed by the European Parliament, the Commission has undertaken in a minutes statement to keep under review the maximum usable doses of these substances, taking account inter-alia of information on intakes from Member States. As regards the other amendments, the Council, like the Commission, considers that some of the questions addressed by these amendments could be raised in the context of the future updating of the legislation. The main innovations introduced by the Council with regard to the Commission's amended proposal relate to: - clarification of the wording of Article 4 of Directive 94/35/EC, notably as regards the use of a food additive listed in the Annex and authorised at 'quantum satis' (Article 1(1)), - labelling obligation as regards salt of aspartame and acesulfame (Article 1(2)), - simplification of the layout of the table in the Annex related to the maximum usable dose for salt of aspartame-acesulfame, in order to indicate the limits either as acesulfame-K equivalents or as aspartame equivalents. Other modifications have been made, of a purely technical nature and aiming at clarifying the text of the Directive (notably concerning the renaming of certain categories and foodstuffs in the Annex, following the adoption of a certain number of Directives since 1994).�