MEPs table many amendments to proposed health claims regulation
on nutrition and health claims, tabling 269 amendments at second
reading in response to a common position that took no account of
the majority of their opinions.
The amendments were tabled at a meeting of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. They will be voted on later this month, with a final plenary vote scheduled for May.
At the end of January MEPs signalled frustration that the Council of Ministers and the EU Commission presented a common position that did not take on board the majority of amendments put forward by ministers at first reading.
The majority of the original amendments have been made again, over issues including the exclusion of brand names and trademarks, and the provision of all claims where scientifically demonstrable.
"The Parliament is determined to achieve proportionality over this dossier and have united in several key areas, with many amendments being tabled to replace the authorisation procedure for all health claims with a pre-marketing notification process," said Chris Whitehouse, MD of health food lobbyists The Whitehouse Consultancy.
The authorisation procedure has been a major bone of contention between the Parliament and the Council. At the first reading the Parliament adopted a notification procedure, which would allow manufacturers to put a product on the market with a specific health claim without receiving authorization in advance. If doubts were raised over scientific basis on the claim, EFSA would then be called on to make a decision.
However this opinion was disregarded by the Council.
Whitehouse said that pre-market notification is welcomed by industry, since it would maintain consumer protection whilst also giving flexibility to food manufacturers.
If the final plenary vote does not result in a consensus being reached between parliament and the council, the two 25 MEPs and 25 representatives from Member States will enter into conciliation behind closed doors - a process that commentators are seeing as increasingly likely.
Miguel Fernandez da Silva, an advisor for European Advisory Services, told NutraIngredients.com in January: "We all think it is very likely. Everyone wants to avoid conciliation, but the situation is very tense and I think they will not come to an agreement."
Whitehouse stressed the importance of the Council listening to the elected body, in the interests of European consumers and businesses.
"Conciliation is often a good way of making bad laws," he said.
