Parnuts progress

Calcium sulphate as a source of calcium, and the amino acid salts,
N-acetyl-L-cysteine and N-acetyl-L-methionine, may be included in
draft regulations amending the PARNUTS directive, which will allow
them to continue to be marketed for use in manufacture of foods
after the law comes into force in April.

The UK has issued new consultation documents on the amending regulations following positive opinions on these nutrients from the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, concluded in December.

The draft regulations would implement two new Commission directives to amend the Food for Particular Nutritional Uses directive (2001/15/EC) so that substances currently not included in the annexed 'positive list?can continue to marketed when article 3 of the directive, prohibiting trade in non-compliant products, comes into effect on 1 April.

The positive list currently includes sources of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, carnitine and taurine, nucleotides and choline and inositol that may be added for specific nutritional purposes in certain foods for particular nutritional uses.

However some substances were already being used in marketed PARNUTS foods at the time of adoption of 2001/15/EC but had not been evaluated by the Scientific Committee on Food and have now received a positive scientific opinion from the SCF or EFSA.

Implementing legislation must be in force by 31 March 2004 but the new directives have not yet been finalised and may not be adopted and published in the Official Journal until next year.

The UK's Food Standards Agency has however drafted the Regulations on the basis of the draft texts of the directives (SANCO/5143/2003rev.1 and SANCO/5144/2003rev.1) that were discussed at a meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health in December.

These texts are not yet finally agreed by Member States and were scheduled to be discussed again at a further standing committee meeting.

Comments on the draft regulations and partial regulatory impact assessment can be sent to Akki Khan at the Food Standards Agency by 5 March 2004.