FSA Consultation Letter, 29 July 2009
A copy of the consultation package is available on this site. See: Additive/Enzyme Enforcement Consultation
Consultation details
Who will this consultation be of most interest to?
What is the subject of this consultation?
What is the purpose of this consultation?
Introduction
In July 2006 the European Commission published proposals for European Parliament and Council Regulations aimed at clarifying and updating the existing legislation on food additives and flavourings and introducing new EC-wide rules on food enzymes, together with a proposal for common authorisation procedures for all three, based on scientific opinions from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
As European Parliament and Council Regulations, they are directly applicable in the UK; however Statutory Instruments (SIs) are required to enforce them and to identify penalties for failure to comply. The Regulation on flavourings will, however, generally apply 12 months later than the Regulations on additives and enzymes and so enforcement provisions for this Regulation will be consulted on next year. The Regulation on a common authorisation procedure does not have any elements which require enforcement in the UK and so it is not part of this consultation.
The purpose of this written consultation is to seek stakeholders’ views on enforcement in England of the EC Regulations described in this document. Impact Assessments and draft enforcement SIs for England can be found at Annexes B and C respectively. Separate, corresponding, SIs will be made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and will be consulted on separately.
Consultation process
The FSA launched a 12-week consultation on the original Commission proposals in September 2006. Approximately 450 stakeholders were consulted across the UK and the proposals received general support with issues being raised on specific points. A summary of the 22 replies can be found via the link below.
Responses helped inform the UK negotiating position and further contact was maintained with a number of industry and consumer groups during Council negotiations. The UK supports the new Regulations on additives and enzymes and this new consultation seeks your views on provisions for their enforcement in England. Impact Assessments and draft England enforcement SIs for each EC Regulation can be found at Annexes B and C of this consultation document.
After this consultation closes, the FSA will reflect on your responses before deciding how to proceed.
Questions asked in this consultation
For each of the Impact Assessments at Annex B, we would particularly welcome contributions on:
Q1: the costs and benefits of the given options
Q2: administrative burden costs
We also welcome views on the assessments given in each of the Specific Impact Test Annexes at the end of each Impact Assessment and on the draft enforcement SIs at Annex C of this document.
Other relevant documents
European Parliament and Council Regulations on:
These can be accessed via the following link: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:354:SOM:EN:HTML
Responses
Responses are required by close 21 October 2009. Please state, in your response, whether you are responding as a private individual or on behalf of an organisation/company (including details of any stakeholders your organisation represents).