Ban targets food and drink additives

The European Parliament’s Environment Committee has recommended stringent controls over dyes put into foods and especially soft drinks and those products enticing to children, including better labeling or an outright ban on some. The committee said EU rules for authorising food additives, flavourings and enzymes need to be updated and simplified. Foods containing azo dyes should be labeled, and flavourings and enzymes should be authorised only where the consumer benefits, they said.
Food additives are currently regulated by a dozen or so EU laws, which the committee said the four new regulations will simplify, update and bring into line with the latest scientific findings. The first regulation sets out an EU-level “common authorisation procedure” for additives, enzymes and flavourings. The other three deal in detail with each of these categories, for which lists of authorised products will be compiled, with conditions of use and rules on labeling.
The European Commission will manage the lists of approved products subject to risk assessments carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The committee also unanimously adopted another report by Asa Westlund of Sweden on additives such as sweeteners, colourings, preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers, gelling agents and packaging gases. A food additive may be authorised only if it is safe in use, if there is a technological need for its use, if its use does not mislead the consumer and if it has advantages and benefits to him, says the report.
Food additives would be completely banned in unprocessed food, as would sweeteners and colourings in food for babies and small children. EU countries may continue to prohibit the use of certain categories of food additives in the traditional foods produced on their territory. There were concerns some dyes may provoke allergenic effects and hyper-activity in children” or other undesirable side effects, especially in children, and should be banned. All additives already on the market - around 300 - will gradually be re-evaluated.
Additives which are currently authorised may stay on the market but once the updating process is complete, any additive not on the approved list will be banned. The food industry uses many natural and artificial flavourings, about 2,600 of which are currently registered. Another category of substances - food enzymes - has been used for hundreds of years, for example in baking, cheesemaking and brewing, where their products perform useful functions such as improving texture, appearance and nutritional value.