Controversy over Commission proposals
may result in food producers having to carry out tests on at least
30,000 substances that have never previously been tested before.
Proposed new European regulations governing the safety of chemicals may result in food producers having to carry out tests on at least 30,000 substances that have never previously been tested before.These include ingredients used in a variety of foodstuffs such as salt and vinegar, which could hit snack manufacturers hard.
In effect, companies may have to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds testing the safety of these products if the legislation, which has been proposed by the European Commission, is passed.
This would also mean that everyday ingredients such as salt (sodium chloride), vinegar (acetic acid), bicarbonate of soda, methylated spirits and alcohol might have to be registered and licensed in similar fashion to pesticides and other chemical compounds.
The draft rules from Brussels have caused concern among scientists and the European chemical and food industries. Many organisations fear that the system will cost billions of euros to implement.
At present there is no system for prioritising tests on chemicals that are likely to threaten human health. In effect, this means that sodium bicarbonate would be dealt with before DDT, simply on account of the fact that more tonnes of it are produced annually.
Amicus, the trade union that represents most chemical workers, believes that thousands of jobs would be put at risk as companies chose to invest in other parts of the world where the rules are not as strict.
At present, tens of thousands of chemicals that have never been tested for an adverse impact on human health or the environment can be sold legally in the EU, as they were already on the market when the regulatory regime was introduced in 1981.
However, the Commission wants to address the issue of chemicals being sold legally in the EU without adequate testing. It wants to establish a European Chemicals Agency to license every chemical. This would require producers to submit detailed data to show that each of their products does not pose unacceptable risks.
