Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-07-Speech-1-167"
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"en.20080707.19.1-167"2
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"Mr President, flavourings are defined as the addition of odour or taste to meals and are mostly a mixture of a large number of aromatic preparations.
The European Parliament insisted on amendments which it believed would be the basis for a balanced and enforceable regulation taking into account scientific and technological developments. It is known that the Council and Parliament took a different stance on the issue of herbs and spices. Parliament believed that it has not yet been proven beyond reasonable doubt that prepared food in which certain undesirable compounds are naturally present has the same toxicological potential as when they are tested in isolation. Herbs and spices have been used since time immemorial without known adverse effects.
As the rapporteur, I was not seeking complete exemptions for herbs and spices from the limits set out in Annex III. Appropriate exemptions were requested to be granted only where scientific evidence is not complete and, therefore, possibly the situation is not yet mature enough to be harmonised at European level.
The second-reading compromise consisted, therefore, of appropriate guarantees given for some herbs and spices that exempted them from limits set out in Annex III. This helps to maintain the limits as proposed by the Council: 4 out of 11 purified active principles and in respect of some 30 out of 40 food categories. This is the most that could have been achieved and I, therefore, ask the European Parliament to vote for it.
As an individual MEP, however, I still have some concerns that I hope the Commission will take care of during the implementation stage. The compromise in the footnote does not apply when herbs and spices appear together with flavourings in compound food. The unintended effect of this could be that the food industry would move away from herbs and spices because extracts and flavourings are much easier to standardise. Due to the varying levels of active principles in herbs and spices, food manufacturers would have to vary their recipes on a batch-by-batch basis, and this would be very costly. The herbs and spices industry could even be wiped off the European market.
This must not happen because European consumers do not want such a limitation on their right to choose as well as for reasons of public health. The consumer would in this case paradoxically consume higher levels of flavourings, which, according to the so-called purification hierarchy, are closer to the undesirable active principles than herbs and spices. I would appreciate it if the Commissioner could reassure me that possible negative developments will be properly monitored and stopped if necessary."@en1
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