Food Law News - EU - 2001


FSA Letter, 15 June 2001

CONTAMINANTS - EC Regulation 466/2001- Limits for 3-monochloroprapane-1,2diol (3-MCPD)

At the end of May 2001, the EU Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) agreed to revise its opinion on 3-MCPD. Whilst this is still subject to some minor editorial changes, the Committee agreed that 3-MCPD is not genotoxic in humans and set a TDI of 2 mg/kg.bw. As a result, there will be a reconsideration of the proposed limits at the Expert Group Meeting (Contaminants) 5-6 July 2001. The proposed limits for soy sauce and hydolysed vegetable protein were set based upon the then current SCF opinion that 3-MCPD was genotoxic and should be undetectable in foods.

This FSA letter is to request any information and supporting data that you are prepared to submit to assist in this process. It is important to bear in mind that 3-MCPD is still a carcinogen and as such should be at the lowest level technologically feasible in foods and food ingredients. In order to prepare for the meeting, the FSA requires comments and submissions by 2 July 2001.


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