EU food supplement regulations

Business news on April 18 in the EU, the management of food supplements is not carried out in isolation, but in the integrated management of the EU's overall food supplement regulatory system Similarly, for plant extracts, the corresponding regulations should also be complied with (I) the general food regulation (reg EC / 178 / 2002) was adopted by the European Commission on January 28, 2002 In this regulation, the official definition of food, the principles and requirements of relevant food laws, the establishment of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) and the legislative procedures for determining food safety are put forward Reg EC / 178 / 2002 defines food as any substance or product that is intended or suitable for human consumption, whether processed, partially processed or untreated The regulation is applicable to all foods and its purpose is to ensure human health and the interests of consumers In addition, the new regulations no longer confuse food safety and trade, only focus on food safety issues, and require the implementation of comprehensive management of food supply chain (i.e from farm to table), which puts forward higher requirements for food producers Responsible for product traceability, problem food will be recalled The regulation covers the management of food with functional ingredients (such as functional food, health food, therapeutic food and food additives) (II) new food regulation (reg EC / 258 / 97) adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council on January 27, 1997 Its definition of new food is: before May 15, 1997, the European Union did not consume a lot of food or food ingredients After several amendments, the regulation stipulates four types of new food: · food composed of or separated from microorganisms, fungi or algae; · food composed of or separated from plants and animals; · food with new molecular structure or directional modified molecular structure; · for the food produced by the new process, the new production process may lead to significant changes in the composition and structure of the food or food ingredients, thus affecting the changes in nutritional value, body metabolism or the level of adverse substances This regulation does not apply to food additives, condiments or extracts In addition, reg EC / 258 / 97 clearly stipulates the authorization procedure of new food, which requires that new food and food ingredients must be evaluated and authorized by the European community before being put on the market (3) Regulation on food nutrition and health claims (reg EC / 1924 / 2006) the regulation on food nutrition and health claims (reg EC / 1924 / 2006) promulgated by the European Union in October 2006 has come into force on January 19, 2007 and come into force on July 1, 2007 Reg EC / 1924 / 2006 has 5 chapters and 29 articles, which clearly stipulate the definition, scope of application, application for registration, general principles and scientific demonstration of nutrition and health claim The regulation is applicable to any food or drink sold for human consumption in the EU market, and aims to ensure that the nutrition and health information provided to consumers on the food packaging is accurate and reliable, so as to avoid misunderstanding by consumers The basic purpose of the regulation is to provide coordination of laws and regulations in terms of labels, introductions, advertisements, etc for nutrition and health claims of food and related functional food among EU Member States, so that relevant food can freely circulate among Member States 1 Food profiles this regulation stipulates that any food related to nutrition and health claims must comply with the provisions of the regulation on nutrition framework Article 4 of the regulation stipulates the nutrition framework, for example, the proportion of salt, sugar and fat in any food shall be subject to the appropriate proportion provided by EFSA The nutritional framework is based on scientific knowledge of the relationship between diet, nutrients and health 2 The conditions and general principles of nutrition and health claim according to Article 5 of the regulation, the conditions that allow nutrition and health claim are: the content of active ingredients in food must reach the nutritional and physiological effects declared by the claim, and the claim must be confirmed by generally accepted scientific evidence The claims should be understood by consumers and not misunderstood Article 10 of the regulation emphasizes the importance of a balanced and diverse diet, and stipulates that when excessive intake of a certain component (such as vitamin A) in the food, the possible health hazards shall be prompted and warned 3 Classification of nutrition and health claims (1) Article 8 of the nutrition claims regulation stipulates that the nutrition claims of food must be marked according to the 24 claims listed in the appendix of the regulation, such as "low fat", "degrease", "low sugar", "sugar free", etc In addition, other conditions in the regulations must be observed when labeling nutritional claims For example, drinks with alcohol content more than 1.2% shall not be labeled with health and nutritional claims (2) general health claims adopt the permission list management system That is to say, the food that meets the conditions of use can be labeled if it is included in the scope of health claim According to Article 13 of the regulation, the relevant departments of European countries must submit to the European Commission by January 31, 2008 the list of health claims allowed to be used, the conditions of use and relevant scientific evidence After consultation with EFSA, the European Commission will publish a list of health claims allowed in Europe no later than January 31, 2010 According to the application of scientific development and new health claims, the European Commission shall supplement, amend, add or withdraw the contents of the list in due time According to the statistics of EFSA's official website, as of December 17, 2008, there are 9720 applications for health claims and 4185 applications for eliminating duplicate applications, of which 1900 are related health claims from plant sources (3) according to Article 14 of the specific / other health claims law, the claims of reducing disease risk and promoting the growth and health of children and adolescents, as well as other special related claims except for Article 13, belong to the special or other health claims These claims under Article 14 must be authorized by the European Commission (authorization procedure, see below) When using the claim of reducing disease risk, the product label, advertisement or advertisement shall also indicate that the disease mentioned in the claim has multiple risk factors, and reducing one of them may bring benefits (IV) Regulation on strengthening food management (reg EC / 1925 / 2006) At the end of 2006, the European Union published the reg EC / 1925 / 2006 regulation on adding vitamins, minerals or other substances to food The regulation has been implemented since July 1, 2007 The food listed before July 1, 2007 shall comply with the requirements of the regulation no later than December 31, 2009 According to the regulation, fortified food includes vitamins, minerals, and other substances with nutritional and physiological effects besides vitamins and minerals, especially functional food from plants The purpose of the regulation is to protect the interests of consumers, unify the different food laws and regulations of member countries, and allow the free circulation of nutritional fortified food containing vitamins, minerals or other substances in the EU The regulations mainly focus on the supplement of vitamins and minerals in food, and other substances including plants If a substance may have harmful effects, risk assessment and risk management procedures shall be carried out (V) food labeling directive (DIR 2000 / 13 / EC) on March 20, 2000, the European Parliament and the Council issued dir 2000 / 13 / EC to harmonize the laws of Member States on food labeling, description and advertising sold to end consumers The Directive requires the following information to be marked: name of food, list of ingredients, quantity of some ingredients, net content, shelf life, any special storage and use conditions, name and address of manufacturer, packer and seller, place of origin, any necessary instructions for use, and the specific concentration of alcohol must be indicated for drinks with alcohol content of more than 1.2% per unit volume At the same time, the regulation puts forward very strict requirements for the reliability of nutrition information on food labels The labeling required by the regulations must list all ingredients in the order of their weight For nutrition and health claims, the relevant provisions of reg EC / 1924 / 2006 shall be followed (VI) food hygiene regulations (reg EC / 852 / 2004) on April 29, 2004, the European Parliament and the Council issued reg EC / 852 / 2004, which is the revised version of the relevant food hygiene regulations contained in directive 93 / 43 / EEC of the European Council, with the purpose of establishing a comprehensive and complete policy system covering all foods from farm to each point of sale The regulation is applicable to food enterprises to ensure the food hygiene and safety in the whole process from primary products to final consumers, but it does not include the nutrition, composition and quality of food According to the regulation, operators of food enterprises (excluding primary production) shall adopt the principle of HACCP proposed by the food code (International Food Standard Code formulated by FAO) Therefore, many EU plant extract purchasers have requirements for Chinese extract enterprises to pass HACCP (VII) on February 23, 2005, the European Parliament and the Council issued reg EC / 396 / 2005, which unifies the residue limits of human food and animal feed organically and establishes a default limit The European Union requires that all edible products for human or animal consumption must meet the MRLs of agricultural and veterinary drugs The current regulation is reg EC / 149 / 2008 as amended on January 29, 2008 1 The food category regulations of concern clearly stipulate the maximum pesticide residues of certain human food and animal feed, covering all edible products available for consumption by any animal, including the repealed Directive 90 / 642 / EEC (plant derived products) When these products are used for planting, active ingredient testing and production of non food products, they can not be limited by the limit standards 2 The European Union stipulates that the maximum agricultural residue limit in food is 0.01mg/kg, which is the default limit For foods without a clear MRL, the default MRL is usually the standard In some special cases, the special limit can be used for food, which may be higher than the default limit 3 Response to agricultural residue limit in some special cases, even if the product does not meet the limit requirements of the regulatory appendix, if the product does not have unacceptable risk, member states can approve the use of the product The member state must immediately inform the European Commission, other Member States and the European food safety agency in order to take relevant measures as soon as possible (such as setting temporary MRLs, etc.) (VIII) the maximum level of specific pollutants in food (reg EC / 1881 / 2006) on December 19, 2006, the European Parliament and the Council issued reg EC / 1881 / 2006 to establish a procedure for assessing the allowable toxicity level of pollutants in food All possible sources of pollutants should be considered This regulation is the revised version of reg EC / 466 / 2001 issued on March 8, 2001 The purpose of establishing the maximum level of specific pollutants is to reduce the content of these pollutants in specific foods to the lowest level