Commission reminds food industry of duty to supply safe food
in the UK food products, European member states and the Commission
remind the food industry of its duty to supply safe food to
consumers.
Without proffering any enforcement details, the Commission warned that in order to stop the use of illegal colours in food, it will continue "to raise the awareness" of the food industry at a European level vis a vis their responsibilities under Europe's extensive food law.
The discovery of the banned red chemical colour Para Red in nearly 50 processed foods in the UK was the catalyst behind the meeting of member states yesterday to tackle the issue.
Among a host of actions to come out of the meeting, the UK, Netherlands, France and Spain agreed on a timescale of two weeks for their laboratories to work in a network to develop further analytical methods for Para Red, to extend the method to other similar dyes in food, and to improve consistency of results.
The UK called for suggestions by 12 May on other dyes to be covered "by this exercise" as well as adulterated samples to serve as quality control material.
Awaiting the results of this action, member states agreed to continue to carry out controls. They opted to place the limit of detection (LOD) for most illegal dyes similar to Sudan I in spices using HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) in the range of 0.5 - 1 mg/kg.
"For the time being, all food ingredients or foods prepared from spices containing illegal dye(s) above the relevant LOD using HPLC should be withdrawn from the market," said the Commission.
And as a warning to the food industry, the Commission stressed that the food law covers not only food safety, but also "fraudulent practices (Article 8)."
In the particular case of adulteration by industrial dyes, the Commission warned that the food additive legislation excludes the use of colours other than those listed for specific authorised uses in Directive 94/36/EC.
