FSA Interested Parties Letter (FIN 03/2008), 28 February 2008
A complete copy of this letter (with the Commission proposals) is available on this site. See: February 2008 FSA Fish Oil Update
This letter provides an update on progress of the restricted working group that is considering fish oil import conditions with the European Commission and builds on information contained in FIN 12/2007 of 17 December 2007 and FIN 02/2008 of 18 February 2008. It also asks for views of interested parties on the parameters and standards for crude and refined oils that have been proposed. It would be helpful to receive interim views by 12:00 05 March in order to inform the UK position in further discussions on 06 March. Final views should be received by close of play 18 March.
I apologise for the short period of time available for a response.
The group met on 27 February 2008 to consider revised proposals drafted by the European Commission which are shown in Annex I. Please note that the draft may not necessarily represent the views of the Commission or the Food Standards Agency and the document that is presented for formal adoption may differ.
The Agency is now seeking your views on the proposals and also on the parameters and standards that have now been elaborated for crude and refined oils (shown in Annex II). Whilst some of these may be quality parameters it has been suggested that they may be viable indicators of hygiene standards throughout the production chain. The Commission will also be inviting comments from stakeholders.
The Commission will now take the proposals to the hygiene implementation working group on 06 March with a view to tabling proposals for a vote in April or May 2008. This consultation is likely to be the last opportunity that will be available to interested parties to comment on the proposals. If the proposals are not agreed at or before the meeting in May then there is a high likelihood that the current derogation will expire on 31 October 2008 and full hygiene requirements will apply.
For the previous news item on this topic, see: