Luxembourg, 25/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Court of Justice has just overturned the European Commission's 1999 decision not to allow the Danish regulatory activity- which is more stringent than that of the EU- on the use of nitrates and nitrites as food additives.
The Court of Justice has just ruled (see p.2, para 4) that a Member State asking to keep exceptional national provisions taken before a European directive was adopted, can claim that it assesses the risk to public health in a different way to the Community legislator.
The Commission decided in 1999 not to allow the Danish regulations, because, it said, it was disproportionate to the cited objective of public health.
The Court (see last article of p.2) ruled that the Commission had taken insufficient account of the opinion of the Scientific Committee for Food (SCF), which, in 1995, questioned the maximum limits for nitrites as laid down in the "food additives" directive of the same year.
Denmark will, however, have to abandon its regulation on sulphite use. The Court found that the Commission had made no factual errors, or errors of assessment (see p.2, penultimate article) in its decision not to allow the Danish regime on the use of sulphites as additives, which are also stricter than EU standards.
Denmark had voted against the European food additives directive, because it felt that it did not respect health requirements for nitrates, nitrites and sulphites.
Nitrites and nitrates are preservatives used mainly in meat, sulphites in wine, jam, cakes, and dried fruits.