Food laws to be slimmed down

Date: 05/10/1995

By Fiona McHugh

NEW food products for weight watchers and diabetics may soon be allowed on to supermarket and chemist shelves even if they do not comply with European Union law.

Temporary licences allowing food products which do not meet Union standards to enter the market for a period of two years may be granted if the European Parliament approves changes to a 1989 directive next week during its plenary session in Strasbourg.

That directive introduced strict controls on the composition, labelling and advertising of special food aimed at protecting consumers.

However, each time a new nutritional product was developed and approved by the EU, the directive had to be changed, a cumbersome procedure which often took several years to complete.

Critics argue that this puts Europe's special food industry at a disadvantage by allowing competitors plenty of time in which to develop rival products.

“The slow pace of introduction of scientific innovations in the world of dietetic foods, for instance, means that consumers in the Union gain access to new products and their potential health benefits only late in the day, while consumers elsewhere - in say, the US, Japan or Australia - have been able to use those products for years,” says rapporteur Italian Forza Europa deputy Giacomo Leopardi.

He will urge fellow members of the Parliament to agree to an authorisation procedure which would allow special diet foods “originating in technological innovation” to bypass the EU composition rules.

Leopardi promises this will not result in lower standards. Reassuring wary colleagues, he noted: “The temporary authorisation to market products is subject to consultation of the scientific committee for food, which verifies whether the innovatory products proposed pose any threat to human health.”

MEPs are also likely to back European Commission moves to withdraw four separate proposals relating to the food industry which it feels are no longer necessary. The EU will continue to regulate baby food, dietary and health products.

Both proposals, which are being handled under the co-decision procedure, will be discussed by the Council of Ministers before returning to the Parliament for a second reading.