FSA Consultation Letter, 4 January 2010
A copy of the consultation document is available on this site. See: Consultation - Claims Regulations Amendment
All comments and views are required by: 29 March 2010
Audience
Who will this consultation be of most interest to?
Food businesses making nutrition and health claims, charities, health professionals and doctors using nutrition and health claims, and enforcement authorities.
What is the subject of this consultation?
Regulations amending the Nutrition and Health Claims (England) Regulations 2007 to introduce an ambulatory reference to Regulation 1924/2006.
What is the purpose of this consultation?
To seek comments on the draft Nutrition and Health Claims (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2010. Parallel regulations have been produced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and consultations on these will run concurrently.
Consultation details
The Nutrition and Health Claims (England) Regulations 2007 (SI 2007 No. 2080) make provision for the execution and enforcement of Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006 [As corrected by a Corrigendum (OJ No. L12, 18.1.2007, p3) and since amended by EC Regulations 107/2008 and 109/2008]. According to regulation 2(1)(d) of the Statutory Instrument (SI) 'the Regulation' is defined as Regulation 1924/2006 as corrected.
Article 8.2 of Regulation 1924/2006 provides for the list of nutrition claims in the annexe to be amended in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. At the 1 October meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, EU member states voted to add five fatty acid claims ('source of omega-3 fatty acids'; 'high omega-3 fatty acids'; 'high monounsaturated fat'; 'high polyunsaturated fat' and 'high unsaturated fat') to the list. The draft Commission Regulation to amend the Annexe accordingly, after undergoing scrutiny by the Council and the European Parliament, is likely to be adopted in mid February 2010 and will come into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
In order to provide for enforcement with respect to the new claims SI 2007 No. 2080 needs to be amended so that it refers to 1924/2006 as amended by this forthcoming Commission Regulation. However, the European Commission has recently put forward a draft proposal which would make further amendments to the nutrition claims annexe and any resultant Commission Regulation would require the SI to be amended again. It is possible that there will also be further future amendments.
Proposals:
Preferred option
Each change to the nutrition claims annexe could be dealt with by a separate amendment to the Nutrition and Health Claims (England) Regulations. However, the most efficient way to provide for these similar changes to the SI would be to amend regulation 2(1)(d) so that it makes an ambulatory reference to 1924/2006 as amended from time to time. Option 3 is therefore the preferred option.
Consultation Process:
A 12-week public consultation is being undertaken on the draft SI and all responses received as part of this consultation will be given careful consideration. These will be summarised and published on the Agency‟s website in due course.
Question asked in this consultation:
We welcome comments from all stakeholders.
Other relevant documents:
Responses:
Responses are required by close on 29 March 2010. 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).