FSA Letter, 22 July 2002

LABELLING - Ingredient Listing and Allergens

There have been four Working Group meetings on this topic and the European Parliament's first reading amendments have been published.

The first meeting under the Danish Presidency will be held on 25th July. A text prepared for that meeting (document number SN 3063/02) is available (SN 3063/02 pdf file), which illustrates quite clearly the changes to the original text that have been gaining support over the last few months. Additions to the Commission's original proposal are marked in bold, deletions are indicated by […]. Briefly,

• mushrooms have been added to the derogation provided for fruit and vegetables present in varying proportions;
• the derogation for sauces and mustards making up less than 5% of the finished product from the need to list their ingredients has been deleted;
  the derogation allowing ingredients to be listed once only has been deleted;
• the derogation allowing ingredients present at less than 5% of the finished product to be listed other than in descending order has been retained, but reduced to 2%;
• the derogations for mutually substitutable ingredients, and ingredients the composition of which is defined in Community law are retained, but at 2% rather than 5%;
• celery and mustard are added to the list in Annex IIIa, and the entries there for cereals and nuts clarified; and
• some changes to the text dealing with declarations on alcoholic drinks will require any specific rules on presentation of the information to be sorted out within six months of the new directive entering into force, and place responsibility for agreeing other detailed rules with the Standing Committee operating in consultation with the sectoral committees.

The Danes are aiming for agreement on a Common Position during their Presidency (July to December 2002) and are planning to take this to the Internal Market Council meeting on 30th September. They have also pencilled in the Internal Market Council meeting on 14th November for possible final adoption.