Parliamentary question - E-3426/2009Parliamentary question
E-3426/2009

Nano Food Additives and Processing Aids

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3426/09
by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE)
to the Commission

Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008[1] on food additives refers to nanotechnologies, though no definition is included in the final text. Article 12 of the regulation states that ‘When a food additive is already included in a Community list and there is a significant change in its production methods or in the starting materials used, or there is a change in particle size, for example through nanotechnology, the food additive prepared by those new methods or materials shall be considered as a different additive and a new entry in the Community lists or a change in the specifications shall be required before it can be placed on the market’.

1. Can the Commission clarify how it intends to determine whether or not a food additive is a nano one? Will it apply the definition recently voted by the European Parliament at first reading of the proposed Novel Foods Regulation (P6_TA(2009)0171)?

2. Will the Commission require the labelling of nano additives, both those not intended for sale to the final consumer and those intended for sale to the final consumer?

3. Processing aids are currently regulated under national laws of Member States. How does the Commission propose to deal with processing aids which are regulated under the national laws of Member States? Will it issue any guidance on nano processing aids?

OJ C 189, 13/07/2010