FSA Consultation Page, 8 March 2007

MILK - Views needed on draft EC dairy directive and update on protein standardisation of dried and condensed milk

Defra and the FSA are calling for views on a draft European Council directive that sets composition and labelling criteria for dried and condensed milks.

On the 21 March, there will be an EC working group meeting to discuss the draft EC directive. At the moment, protein standardisation of dried and condensed milks is not permitted, but the proposed amendment will permit protein standardisation of these products to 34%.

While the FSA is responsible for the specific legislation on dried and condensed milk, most of the overall package of changes being discussed is covered by Defra. Therefore, Defra is organising the consultation on the overall dairy package in cooperation with the FSA. You can see the documents at the link to the Defra website below.

The consultation runs from 8 March to 19 April. However, since the first meeting to discuss the proposal to permit protein standardisation of dried and condensed milk is on 21 March, any comments you can provide by 19 March would be appreciated.

Additional information is given on a different FSA page:

Consultation on a proposed change to a European Council directive permitting protein standardisation of dried and condensed milk.

On 21 March there will be an EC working group meeting to discuss a draft Council Directive amending Council Directive 2001/114/EC, which sets composition and labelling criteria for dried and condensed milks. Whereas at the moment protein standardisation of dried and condensed milks is not permitted, this proposed amendment will permit protein standardisation of these products to 34%.

Protein standardisation, in this case, involves modifying the protein content of a dried or condensed milk to a standard value, in this case 34%.

The proposal to allow protein standardisation of dried and condensed milks is one of a group of proposed changes to several pieces of European Dairy legislation (Council Directive 2001/114/EC, Council Regulation (EC) No 1255/1999 and Council Regulation (EC) No 2597/97). While the FSA is responsible for the specific legislation on dried and condensed milk, most of the overall package of changes being discussed is covered by Defra. Therefore Defra is organising the consultation on the overall dairy package in cooperation with the FSA. Defra has produced a consultation document containing details of all the proposals which can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/dairy-package/index.htm.

The consultation runs from 8 March to 19 April (six weeks). However, since the first meeting to discuss the proposal to permit protein standardisation of dried and condensed milk is on 21 March, any comments which you can provide by 19 March would be appreciated.

The following is additional information taken from the DEFRA website

DEFRA Letter: Proposed package of measures relating to the dairy sector

Consultation on a Commission proposal for a package of measures relating to the dairy sector

I write to invite your views on a proposed dairy package. The package is mainly technical in nature and contains proposals to:

• Allow for the protein content of milk powders and condensed milk to be standardised (i.e. adjusted); as a consequence, the intervention price of skimmed milk powder (SMP) will be reduced by 2.8% and only SMP with a protein content of 34% may be bought into intervention.
• Remove the trigger mechanism for opening and closing intervention for butter.
• Abolish the national quality class for butter.
• Abolish Private Storage Aid for cream and SMP.
• Abolish the possibility of granting a disposal aid to butter for military forces.
• Introduce a flat rate payment for school milk
• Adjust the school milk annual application period for subsidy
• Remove the requirement for the compulsory use of import licences.
• Liberalise the rules relating to the fat content for drinking milk

The consultation can be found at www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult. The consultation will run until 19 April 2007. We would however be grateful for comments as soon as possible in order to inform our discussions with other EU Member States and the Commission on 21 March 2007. We anticipate that the package will be adopted by the Council of Ministers in early May 2007.

The following documents may be found on Defra's website: www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/dairy-package/index.htm

• Formal consultation document (based on the partial Regulatory Impact Assessment;
• List of consultees
• The Commission's dairy package (Annex A) which contains:
• A proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2001/114/EC relating to certain partly or wholly dehydrated preserved milk for human consumption
• A proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1255/1999 on the common organisation of the market in milk and milk products
• A proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 2597/97 laying down additional rules on the common organisation of the market in milk and milk products for drinking milk

The Commission Proposal, COMDOC(2007)58, can be found on this site: COMDOC (2007) 58