Brussels, 09/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on 8 July, the European Parliament gave the go-ahead on second reading to the clarification and scientific updating of existing Community legislation on the authorisation of food additives, flavourings and enzymes. MEPs followed the line set by rapporteurs Åsa Westlund (PES, Sweden), Mojca Drèar Murko (ALDE, Slovenia) and Avril Doyle (EPP-ED, Ireland) and gave widespread second reading approval to the agreement reached with the Council on a package of four regulations (see EUROPE 9466).
Under the terms of the agreement, all substances added to foods must now go through a common, centralised authorisation procedure, based on authorisation criteria set out in the sectoral food laws and the scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which will have nine months to provide its opinion. If a substance is approved, the Commission will have nine months to bring forward a draft regulation to include the said substance on the list of EU-approved substances.
The precautionary principle will apply in the use of flavourings and enzymes. The new regulation establishes clear rules for the maximum authorised levels of substances which could have side-effects and which could be present in flavourings. Only those flavourings which are 95% natural in natural in origin will be able to be called “natural”. The use of enzymes will only be permitted if they do not mislead consumers as to the freshness, nature and quality of ingredients, and the naturalness and nutritional quality of the product. Additives (sweeteners, colourings, preservatives, antioxydants, emusifiers, and gelling agents) will only be authorised if their use is safe and necessary from the technological point of view, if it does not mislead the consumer and if it has advantages for the consumer. Additives will be totally banned from unprocessed food; and colourings and sweeteners will be banned from food for babies and young children, unless they feature on the list of EU-approved substances. Member states will be free to continue to ban the use of certain categories of food additives in traditional local produce within their borders. Foods containing certain azoic colouring agents used as food additives (colourings E110, E104, E122, E129, E102 and E124) will have to be labelled so that the letter E followed by the appropriate figure is clearly apparent, and will have to bear a legend that indicates that the product could affect the behaviour and attention span of children. The Greens/EFA freely admit that they would have preferred a moratorium on the use of these colourings, shown in a recent British study to cause hyperactivity in children. Marie-Anne Isler Béguin (Greens, France) said, “We are saddened that food marketing aimed at our children should have won the day over the precautionary principle”. (A.N./transl.rt)