European Union labelling requirements

Since food colorants are used as food additives, they must also comply with legislative requirements. Food legislation in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) differs with regard to additives and labeling. Therefore, this section provides an overview of legislation in the EU (Section 7.1.6.1) and the US (Section 7.1.6.2) and discusses colorants permitted for use in food products according to the different requirements. 

An examination is made of the requirements of a European Union directive (1999/45/CE) relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of chemical substances considered harmful to the health or the environment. 

European Union and Italian legislation relating to hazardous chemicals is reviewed, with particular reference to classification and labelling requirements. 

Antioxidants should be labelled on the retail package with the specific chemical name or with the EC number. The legislation of member states of the EU is influenced by the decision taken within the EC. Some food standards are fully based on EC Directives and some are still based on national considerations. There may be differences between European states, for instance, the utilisation of ascorbic acid as antioxidant for egg products is permitted in France but prohibited in Germany. These differences concern usually the utilisation of antioxidants in various food commodities. The specification of antioxidants mentioned in EC Directives are respected by all member states. But it is still generally required that individual countries of the European Union as well as the central organisation should be approached. The requirements appearing in the EC Directives on additives must be applied by the member states. This means in the first place that for those categories of additives for which a Community positive list exists, member states may not authorise any additives which do not appear on the positive list. 

Within the European Union the provision of nutrition information is only obligatory if nutrition claims are being made or implied for the product and, whether obligatory or not, if information is provided it must be derived in the prescribed manner. In the UK the requirements are set out in the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (SI 1996 1499). 

Only two chemical groupings need to be indicated for the conqionents conqirising the most significant risk. This classification is an interim classification until an application is made to the European Union for the inclusion of fast pyrolysis liquid on the dangerous goods list. This classification should be used on all labels and for all sizes of shipments, in particular on the transportation documents and the MSDS. For tank containers, and bulk shipments, additional placarding is required and this is discussed below. 

In addition to the written statements, several of the existing hazard communication systems use symbols to convey hazards. The United States (US) allows the use of symbols in the workplace, but does not require them. The placement and design of the symbols varies among systems. The European Union (EU) system places symbols in a square. The Canadian system requires the symbols to have a circle around them. And the United Nations (UN) transport system requires the symbols be placed in a diamond. These differences result in different labels even when the symbol itself is the same. 

Basic professional development courses offered by SCHC are MSDS and Label Preparation Workshops Science, Toxicology and Industrial Hygiene for Hazard Communication and Hazard Determination Risk Assessment. Regulatory courses include Canadian Mexican Hazard Communication Pesticide Consumer Product Labeling Component Disclosure Requirements European Union Hazard Communication Transportation Classification Labeling HMIS/NEPA Labeling and International Chemical Control Laws. 

In addition to those listed in Table 11.9, a large number of the chemicals listed on the FDA GRAS, and EAFUS lists (see Section 10.7) are also contained in personal care and cosmetic products. Cosmetic products in particular have come under close scrutiny in the European Union, which has far more stringent labeling requirements than those in the United States. 

Recent expert consultations conducted within the European Union clearly supported the need to multiply efforts toward establishing allergen thresholds to be used within the context of food labeling. These thresholds would be essential for the implementation and enforcement of allergen labeling requirements and would improve predictability between regulators and regulates. 

There are many chemical contaminants that may be present in a vast array of different foodstuffs. This highlights the need for an extremely flexible, sensitive, and rapid analytical methodology capable of detection of multianalyte in various food samples. Such systems should be capable of detecting the residues of the parent compound and its metabolites in various sample matrices. This may be facilitated in the future by multiplex antibody microarrays, possibly integrated with label-free methods. Flowever, within the European Union (EU) there is no obligation to use standardized methods in residue control studies on food-producing animals. Techniques are required to satisfy new performance characteristics, limits, and other criteria, opening the door for modern analytical approaches such as antibody microarrays [42]. 

R-Phrases Standardized risk phrases that are required on labels and safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals in the European Union. They appear as a letter followed by one or more numbers. 

An important feature of these labeling requirements in the European Union is that they aim not only to provide appropriate hazard warning and safety advice on the label in the interests of worker protection but also, through the application of rigid criteria, to achieve a harmonized approach within the single market. In order to achieve these dual objectives, it is perhaps inevitable that the EU requirements are more prescriptive than their United States counterparts under TSCA and the OS HA Hazard Communication Standard. 

To use the average requirement for adult men, which in most cases equals the reference intake for women. This is the approach favoured by the Scientific Committee for Food of the European Union but has not yet been adopted in EU labelling legislation. 

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