ADDITIVES - Commission Working Group on Food Additives: 3 and 4 July 2000

Proposal to amend the Food Additives Framework Directive 891107/EEC (Doc WGA/003/00rev1)

This Commission proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive, seeks to amend Directive 89/107/EEC in three main respects:

• Article 1 (1) seeks to increase the scope of food additives approval work subject to Standing Committee of Foodstuffs procedure (Article 11 of Directive 89/107), to include the addition of new additives to the permitted lists of sweeteners, colours and miscellaneous additives, and to include new uses of already approved additives. Currently, amendment of food additives legislation is subject to a complex and time-consuming co-decision procedure, requiring Council of Ministers and European Parliament agreement;
• Article 1(2) seeks to delete the provisions in Article 5 of 89/107 covering temporary national authorisations; and
• Article 1 (3) seeks to amend Articles 7 and 8 of Directive 89/107 to introduce additional labelling requirements for additives from GM sources sold as such to manufacturers and direct to consumers. It also includes at new Article 7 (k), a proposal to introduce a 1 % threshold for the adventitious presence of GM material (i.e. DNA and protein) in these additives. The latter provision is in line with other GM food legislation, although a threshold provision has yet to be introduced in Regulation 50/2000 on the labelling of food additives and flavourings from GM sources when used in foods and food ingredients.

A provision in an earlier version of the proposal to include enzymes within the scope of Directive 89/107 has been dropped. The Commission intends to issue its formal proposal at the end of the year. The Commission also intends to introduce separate provisions harmonising the controls on enzymes by the end of the year.

Draft amendment to Commission Directives on purity criteria (95/31/EC. 95/45/EC and 96/77/EC) concerning food additives from genetically modified sources (Doc.SAN CO/1796/2000)

This draft is a simplified version of earlier proposals. It concentrates on issues of most concern to consumers (additives from GM sources) rather than covering additives prepared using production methods or starting materials which are significantly different from existing ones. It contains a requirement for a safety evaluation by the Scientific Committee on Food for additives (colours, sweeteners and miscellaneous additives) prepared from GM techniques or from GM starting material. The proposal will be referred to the Standing Committee on Foodstuffs for an exchange of views later in the year.