Food Law News - EU - 1998
17 March 1998: LABELLING - Labelling of Allergens and Removal of the “25% Rule”
MAFF/DoH Letter, 17 March 1998
Labelling of Allergens and Removal of the “25% Rule”
At a meeting in Brussels on 12 March, the Commission sought Member States’ views on:
- an initial draft proposal to amend the labelling Directive (79/112/EC) to remove certain ingredient listing exemptions when specified ingredients known to cause hypersensitivity have been used; and
- the retention, removal or amendment of the “25% rule” (the provision in the labelling Directive which permits compound ingredients which make up less than 25% of the final product to be indicated by reference to the compound ingredient itself, rather than by listing its individual ingredients).
The letter circulates for information a text of a draft proposal for the first item (but is has not yet been formally presented to the Council by the Commission.
The Ministry wishes to have views on the future of the “25% rule”: whether this provision should be
- retained unchanged,
- removed altogether, or
- amended to 5% in line with the proposal which will be discussed by the Codex Committee on Food Labelling in Ottawa on 26-29 May this year.
Comments are requested by 24 April.
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