Strasbourg, 11/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 10 July, the European Parliament adopted, on first reading, four reports updating and simplifying methods for authorising food additives, flavourings and enzymes. The texts adopted propose amendments to Commission legislative proposals to increase consumer protection through higher safety standards and to boost innovation and competitiveness in the European food industry.
Common EU authorisation procedure. The first report adopted was drafted by Åsa Westlund (PES, Sweden), and dealt with the common authorisation procedure. MEPs decided there should be more transparency than in the Commission proposal. They also wanted all requests for authorisation to be submitted to the EP, interested parties and also to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), whose opinions should be made public. MEPs also wanted not only member states, but the EP and stakeholders, to be notified of all applications to market a product. If a producer's competitive position was liable to be compromised by the publication of scientific information to which the producer had exclusive rights, the scientific data would be protected for a period of five years.
Additives must not harm the environment. The second report by Åsa Westlund dealt with the specific regulation on additives (sweeteners, colourings, etc.). The Commission proposal set out conditions that had to be satisfied for additives to be authorised: they must not endanger the health of consumers and vulnerable groups, they must be technologically necessary in terms of advantages for the consumer, and they must not mislead the consumer.
MEPs added that they may not have any negative impact on the environment. They also think that additives should not mislead consumers with regard to specific qualities - e.g. the freshness or natural character - of a product, that there should be separate limit values for nanotechnologies, and that labels should state whether any additives have been produced from GM sources, and whether the product contains any nitrogen-based tinctures. It should be noted that in parallel to the authorisation procedure for new additives, all of the additives already on the market - around 300 of them - will gradually be re-evaluated.
Flavours and enzymes: apply the precaution principle. The food industry uses many natural and artificial flavours: no fewer that 2 600 are listed. Increasing numbers of enzymes are also entering into food production. Two new European regulations have been proposed with a view to improving the safety of the use of these substances. These were the subject of reports by Avril Doyle (PPE-DE, Ireland) (enzymes) and Mojca Drèar Murko (ALDE, Slovenia) (flavours) which were also adopted in the plenary. In both cases it is a matter of defining the conditions of use and drawing up a positive list of authorised substances. These substances will all be subject to an evaluation procedure by EFSA to verify that they do not pose any health risks and that they do not mislead consumers. MEPs want to make the conditions of use stricter and consider that the use of enzymes and flavourings should be beneficial to the consumer. They introduce, in both cases, the precaution principle as a rule of conduct. For flavourings, the regulation envisages a list of substances which have fulfilled the criteria, and also a list of banned products as well as limit values for certain specific substances. MEPs consider that flavourings should only be used “in case of technological necessity”. They demand an investigation into the influence of flavourings on vulnerable groups and in particular on children's food preferences. Furthermore, a flavour can only be termed “natural” if 95 % of the flavouring element is derived from natural sources.
Some of the amendments aimed to bring the text into line with the provisions on the new comitology decision. In the four reports, the MEPs indicated that in case of any technical updates to the legislation, the new comitology procedure involving a “careful examination” must be used, thereby giving the Parliament the right to intervene if it deems it necessary. The ball is now in the Council's court, and it should proceed with an examination of these four proposals in the autumn. (ol)