Tell Them What You Think ^beta

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, EU-wide rules on food enzymes, together with a proposal for common authorisation procedures for all three.

As European Parliament and Council Regulations, they are directly applicable to the UK, however statutory rules (SRs) are required to enforce them and to identify penalties for failure to comply. Enforcement SRs are now in place for additives and enzymes (which applied from 20 January 2010). However, as the regulation on flavourings applies 12 months later (20 January 2011), we are consulting on the enforcement provisions for this regulation now.

The purpose of this written consultation is to seek stakeholders' views on:

• The enforcement in Northern Ireland of the EU Regulation described in this document (a draft enforcement SR for Northern Ireland can be found at Annexe D)
• The accompanying Impact Assessment at Annexe C – this updates the Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment on the original Commission flavourings proposal.

Separate, corresponding, SRs will be made in England, Scotland and Wales and will be consulted on separately.

Provisions
The enforcement provisions of EU Regulation 1334/2008 come into effect from 20 January 2011, although some provisions of this EU Regulation applied from 20 January 2009. Amendments to Annexes II to V are permitted under Article 22. However, foods that are lawfully placed on the market prior to 20 January 2011 that do not comply with Regulation 1334/2008 can be marketed until their date of minimum durability or use-by-date in accordance with Article 30.

Offences
Regulation 3(1) of the Flavourings in Food (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2010 makes it an offence to fail to comply with the specified provisions of the new EU Regulation. Regulation 3(2) sets out the provisions in Regulation 1334/2008 which are enforced by making it an offence to fail to comply with them. Regulation 3(2)(h) in particular is an enforcement measure on which we seek the views of consultees; it enforces Article 19(2) and (3) respectively of Regulation 1334/2008. Article 19(2) relates to an approved flavouring which can be modified via different production methods or by using different starting materials, and therefore require another evaluation. Article 19(3) requires food business operators to inform the Commission immediately of any new information that might affect the safety assessment of an approved flavouring.

Enforcement measures have not been applied to Article 19(1) however, where the Commission requests food business operators to supply them with information regarding the categories and levels for flavourings used in foods. In the event that a food business operator declines to provide the Commission with the requested information, it may result in the suspension of the use of the flavouring in question because an appropriate review cannot be conducted. We believe this would in practice render Article 19(1) a selfenforcing measure and would welcome your views as to whether enforcement measures are/are not required for Article 19(1).

Consequential and other amendments
Article 29 of EU Regulation 1334/2008 amends the Food Labelling Directive, (Directive 2000/13/EC), and as a consequence, changes are also required to the UK Food Labelling Regulations. Principal changes achieved by EU Regulation 1334/2008 can be found at Annexe A.

This consultation started on 21st July 2010 and ended on 14th October 2010.

Here are the documents we were able to locate that relate to this consultation: