European Parliament to vote on definition and labelling of nanotechnology

Released on Thursday 19th March 2009

On Tuesday, 24th March 2009, the European Parliament is scheduled to debate a report from the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) that wants risk assessments nanofoods and calls for labelling of products ‘produced with the aid of nanotechnologies’.

Tuesday's debate in Strasbourg forms part of the review of the ‘Novel Foods Regulation’ ((EC) No 258/97) which covers food not eaten widely in the European Union before May 1997, when the legislation on novel foods was first established

In 2006, the European Commission commenced a revision of the Novel Food Regulation; the revision was deemed necessary in order to ‘reflect the fact that genetically modified (GM) food no longer falls under its scope, to create a more favourable legislative environment for innovation in the food industry, and to better facilitate both internal and external trade in foodstuffs.’

'Nanotechnologies’ were initially regarded ‘outside’ the scope of revision of the Novel Foods Regulation; nevertheless, several amendments on the topic of ‘nanotechnologies’ repeatedly found their way into the drafting process.

This latest report from the ENVI committee includes a number of references to ‘nano’, including the following:
  • (6b) Test methods currently available are not adequate for assessing the risks associated with nanomaterials. Nanospecific non-animal test methods should be developed as a matter of urgency. (Amendment 11; Proposal for a regulation -amending act Recital 6 b (new))
  • (6d) Nanomaterials present in food packaging should be entered on a list of approved nanomaterials, accompanied by a limit on migration into or onto the food products contained in such packaging. (Amendment 13 Proposal for a regulation - amending act Recital 6 d (new))
  • (21) [...] Products produced with the aid of nanotechnologies and food produced from animals fed with genetically modified feeding stuffs must be labelled as such. (Amendment 26 - Proposal for a regulation - amending act Recital 21)
  • (ca) 'nanomaterial' means an intentionally manufactured material with one or more external dimensions or an internal structure, of the order of 100 nm or less; (Amendment 36 Proposal for a regulation – amending act Article 3 – paragraph 2 –point (c a) (new))
  • (cb) 'produced with the aid of nanotechnology' means a product which contains, consists of or is produced with intentionally manufactured material with one or more external dimensions or an internal structure, (i) on the scale from [...] 1 to 100 nm, or, (ii) where larger than 100 nm, is generally scientifically accepted as a product of nanotechnology. (Amendment 37 Proposal for a regulation – amending act Article 3 – paragraph 2 –point (c b) (new))
  • Products produced with the aid of nanotechnologies must be labelled with the words ‘produced with the aid of nanotechnologies’; (Amendment 59 Proposal for a regulation – amending act Article 7 – paragraph 2 c – subparagraph 2 (new))

In an interview, the responsible rapporteur, Dutch MEP Kartika-Tamara Liotard, told European Parliament News that ‘there is no legislation and no uniform risk assessment procedure.’

Follow these links to download the complete ENVI Report, to find out more about the revision of the Novel Foods Regulation, or to read the European Parliament News  article.

 

Related Links:
NIA Comments on EFSA Opinion
This week’s issue of EU Food Law weekly looks in detail at the Scientific Opinion on ‘The Potential Risks Arising from Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies on Food and Feed Safety’  published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the 5th March 2009. (13th March 2009)

 
Carl Schlyter, rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), is sceptical ‘regarding the Commission’s review that says, in general, current legislation is satisfactory but implementation should be improved’, according to an article by CosmeticsDesignEurope. (13th February 2009)
 
The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) of the European Parliament has released a Draft Report on regulation aspects of nanomaterials (2008/2208(INI)). The report puts forward a number of bullet points forming a Motion for a European Parliament Resolution on regulatory aspects of nanomaterials, [...]. (23rd January 2009)
 
The European Parliament (EP) has published its Draft Report (COM(2007)0872 – C6-0027/2008 – 2008/0002(COD)) on the EC’s draft Proposal for a Regulation on Novel Foods; the report will be debated during the next meeting of the EP’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) (to be held on the 14th July 2008). (11th July 2008)

 

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