Simplified EU Rules for Authorising Food Additives

The European Parliament has adopted a legislative package that will see products containing any of six artificial colours labelled with a health warning.

 The decision to put a warning on
products containing colours came yesterday at the plenary session of
the European Parliament in Strasbourg. MEPs also updated and
simplified EU rules for authorising food additives, flavourings and
enzymes by adopting a legislative package on four draft regulations,
which are part of the Commission's Food Improvement Agents Package
(FIAP).
Other areas voted on by the Parliament included the
decision that food additives must only be used if they are safe and
bring benefits to consumers, flavourings must be 95 per cent natural
in origin to be labelled "natural", and separate limit
values for nanotechnologies must be decided on.
The new
authorisation procedure will run in parallel with a reassessment of
all additives, flavourings and enzymes that are currently on the
market.
The new procedure intends that community authorisation
will be given in a transparent, centralised manner on the basis of a
scientific opinion by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), as
long as the authorisation criteria set out in the sectoral food laws
are met.

Manufacturers have eighteen months to
comply with the new labelling requirements following the official
publication of the law, which is expected within the next few
weeks.
Companies will have to decide whether to continue to use
the additives and suffer the effects the warning might have on sales,
or invest in reformulation. Many large companies, such as Cadbury and
Nestle, have already made pledges to remove all artificial colourings
from their products.