Brussels, 13/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - Further to the comprehensive political agreement reached by the Agriculture Council on 17 December, the EU Council of Ministers adopted without debate, on 10 March, a common position on the package of legislative proposals on food improvement agents, to be forwarded to the European Parliament for a second reading.
The package on food improvement agents is aimed at harmonising across the board, in accordance with the “farm to table” concept, the evaluation procedure for authorising food improvement agents and certain requirements concerning their labelling, in order to guarantee a high level of protection of human life and health and the interests of consumers, whilst ensuring the proper operation of the internal market. The package is composed of four proposals for regulation. The first establishes uniform and centralised authorisation procedure based on risk assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and a risk management system. The other three proposals concern additives, enzymes and food flavourings. They make the marketing of such substances subject to respect of harmonised criteria and the granting of specific authorisation.
The Parliament had given its opinion at first reading on 10 July 2007 on all regulations and the Commission forwarded the corresponding amended legislative proposals on 24 October, mentioning the amendments that it could accept. (O.L.)