Food Law News - UK - 2016

FSA Update, 2 August 2016

CONTAMINANTS – FSA July 2016 Contaminants Update

You will wish to be aware that the European Commission is conducting stakeholder consultations this summer on regulatory proposals for mercury, acrylamide, 3-MCPD and Glycidyl Esters in food and cyanogenic glycosides in raw apricot kernels and bitter almonds.

• Mercury: The Commission has requested comments by the end of August, see draft act and annex included. Please respond to Frank.SWARTENBROUX@ec.europa.eu.
• Acrylamide, 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters: The Commission has requested comments by 5th September, please see attached documents and respond to Frans.Verstraete@ec.europa.eu.
• Cyanogenic glycosides in raw apricot kernels and bitter almonds: The Commission has given a deadline of 29 August 2016 for comments please see enclosed document for more detail and respond to Frans.Verstraete@ec.europa.eu.
• The EU Commission has also produced an early draft of a recommendation for the monitoring of Mineral Oil Hydrocarbons (MOH) in food; this suggests that interested parties carry out investigations into the sources of contamination. This recommendation will be discussed further at Commission working groups in September.

Please send any relevant information, comments and data either directly to the Commission as indicated in the relevant documents. You may wish to copy in ChemicalContaminants@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk.

Linked to this update, the following documents (all in pdf format) have been provided by the Food Standards Agency:

• European organisations consulted on the paper(69.05 KB)
• Consultation: 3-,2-MCPD and their fatty acid esters and glycidyl fatty acid esters(201.66 KB)
• Regulatory follow-up to EFSA opinion on “Acute health risks related to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides in raw apricot kernels and products derived from raw apricot kernels”(169.49 KB)
• SANTE 10132 2016 Annex I v4(37.34 KB)
• SANTE 10132 2016 Act v3(58.75 KB)
• European organisations consulted on the draft Regulation(108.02 KB)
• SANTE 11059R1 2016 Act WD(158.78 KB)
• SANTE 11059R1 2016 Annex WD(175.39 KB)
• Food Drink Europe - Code of Practice for Managing Acrylamide Formation in Foods(502.95 KB)
• Code of Practice for managing acrylamide formation during the production of bread and bread products* following the ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) principle(224.70 KB)
• Serving Europe - Minimising the presence Of Acrylamides in food and drinks(590.03 KB)
• Hotrec - Minimising the presence of acrylamide in food: proposal for a Code of practice of the European hospitality industry - Draft(413.82 KB)
• UEAPME - Minimising the presence of acrylamide in food: proposal for a Code of practice of the European craft, micro and small food enterprises