Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading, UK
(Note: This page is copyright - © D.J.Jukes 2012 - but please see Copyright notice)
Last updated: 12 December, 2012

Food Additives in the European Union

(compiled by Dr David Jukes)

To go to main Foodlaw-Reading index page, click here.
 

 

On this page:
  • EU Law - description of the legislation controlling additives in the EU with links to EU documents
  • Previous EU controls - the Internal Market directives; providing a description and links to the former legislation based on directives
  • Development of New EU Controls - detailed background information relating to the new Regulations adopted in November 2008 and subsequent developments
  • UK Law - links to the UK legislation implementing the EU law

 

For a listing of E-numbers (now on a separate page), see:
EU Food Additives: Listing by E Number

Summary

The adoption of a single harmonised list of food additives for the European Union has taken a long time. It can essentially be split into 3 separate stages - we are currently in the transition betwee Stages 2 and 3:

Note that for EU legislative purposes, food flavourings are not considered as food additives and are covered by separate legislation (not described on this page).

The developments have been complex. The elements of Stage 2 and the transition to Stage 3 can be summarised in the following diagram:

EU Law

Additional information can be found on the European Commission's page relating to food additives at http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/fAEF/index_en.htm

Stage 3 - Controls based on Regulation 1333/2008

The broader framework for food additives, food enzymes and food flavourings is provided by a 'common authorisation procedure' regulation - Regulation 234/201:

The general and the detailed controls on food additives are now contained in a single document - Regulation 1333/2008:

There has been several amendments:

For a consolideted version of Regulation 1333/2008, see: 1333/2008 Consolidated Text (published August 2012) [Caution - this document is 288 pages long!]

Specifications of Purity

These have been published in a separate Regulation:

Procedural Matters

In addition, there has been one implementing measure providing details of the procedures to be followed when requesting the approval of new additives, enzymes and flavourings:

For more details on the development of these new controls, see the section below: The Development of the new EU Controls

Adding Additives to the List

Risk management responsibility for food additives lies with the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection (DG SANCO). The Directorate Geneneral has published a short descriptive document giving 'Administrative Guidance for the request of authorisation of a food additive'. This can be found at: Administrative Guidance. Scientific risk assessment is now the responsibility of the European Food Safety Authority and, in particular, their Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources Added to Food (ANS). There is a separate, but related, Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids (CEF).

See also the new implementing measure mentioned above relating to the new controls: Commission Regulation (EU) No 234/2011

Previous EU controls - Stage 2 - the Internal Market directives

The Framework Directive

In late 1988 (but published in 1989), the Community adopted a framework directive which set out the criteria by which additives would be assessed and provided for the adoption of more specific technical directives establishing the list of additives which could be used, the foods in which they could be used and any maximum levels. The Directive is:

This Directive requires that all permitted food additives are assessed by the European Scientific Committee for Food (SCF) for their safety against the criteria which are stated in the Annex to the Directive.

The framework Directive has been amended twice by:

A consolidated version of Directive 89/107 can be found on the EU web site at: Framework Directive 89/107 [20 November 2003]

The 1994 amendment (to the framework directive) provided that countries can nominate certain foods which have traditional characteristics and which, in the territory of the Member State, have not been permitted to contain certain additives. If it is subsequently agreed, the Member States concerned can continue to restrict the use of additives in these foods within their territory. This has resulted in the adoption of a Decision providing approved national derogations:

The official text of Decision 292/97/EC can be found on the EU web site at: Decision 292/97/EC. It is however mising the important Annex. However, an unofficial scanned version is available on this web site at: 292/97/EC.

The Specific Directives

The specific Directives were eventually adopted. 3 Directives now provide the requirements for additive legislation within the whole of the European Community. They are:

All 3 of these directives have been amended to change administrative arrangements relating to the committe structure (not shown on the above diagram). For details, see:

In addition, there are amending directives which have amended 2 of the 3 specific Directives. These are:

The text of the Directives are available on the EU web site at:

See also:

Purity Criteria

Specific purity criteria have also been adopted for the additives. These are given in additional Directives. These were initially published in 1995 and 1996:

These have all been republished as updated (codified) documents:

The Development of the new EU Controls

In July 2006, the Commission published a set of four proposed Regulations which would replace the current system and provide a common basis for controls on food additives, food flavourings and food enzymes. They were adopted by the Council of Ministers in November 2008 and published in the Official Journal on 31 December 2008.

Documents

The proposals were published as Commission Documents as follows:

Amended proposals were published by the Commission in October 2007:

Following the adoption of Common Positions by the Council of Ministers (10th March 2008), on the 11th March 2008 the Commission published 3 communications:

Following the European Parliament's 2nd Reading (8th July 2008), on 16th October 2008 the Commission published 4 opinions:

The adopted regulations were published in the Official Journal on 31 December 2008. They enter into force on various dates from 20 January 2009 until 20 January 2011:

News Items

The following are links to news items available on this site relating to the progress of the proposals, the adoption of the controls and subsequent related developments:

Progress of the proposals

Adoption of the Regulations

Subsequent Developments

UK Law

Enforcement of the EU Regulations

The EU Regulations adopted in December 2008 impose direct legal requirements in the UK. However they require legal provisions to provide for their enforcement and for penalites. The following Regulations provide these:

England

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

Implementation of EU Directives

The application of leagl controls based on the previous Directives was implemented into UK law by a series of Regulations.

For the United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland), the Directives have been implemented into UK legislation by the following Regulations which came into effect on the 1st January 1996

Separate, but identical, legislation applies to Northern Ireland:

This page was first provided on 29 July 1996