powrót do Aktualności
Pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006 on the addition of vitamins and minerals and of certain other substances to foods, Member States may adopt national measures introducing prohibitions or restrictions on the use of certain substances in the manufacture of specific foods.
Latvia has now used this option and notified the European Commission and the other Member States of a draft Regulation on plants, plant parts, and other substances whose use in food is prohibited or restricted.
The draft regulation establishes:
a list of plants, plant parts and other substances whose use in foods is prohibited or restricted,
a notification procedure for the distribution of multi-ingredient foods containing plants or plant parts, including rules on registration and cancellation of such registration, and
additional labelling requirements for multi-ingredient foods containing plants or plant parts.
The draft regulation includes three annexes:
Annex 1 – List of plants and plant parts that may not be used in foods (62 entries), e.g.:
Arnica montana (mountain arnica) – whole plant – food supplements containing this ingredient are available on the Polish market.
Annex 2 – List of plants or plant parts whose use in foods is restricted (16 entries), e.g.:
Urtica dioica L. (stinging nettle) – the root may be used only in food supplements (in Poland, products in categories other than supplements are available, e.g. herbal teas containing nettle root).
Annex 3 – Maximum levels of selected active substances in food supplements, e.g.:
Hesperidin – less than 50 mg
Melatonin – less than 2 mg
The planned entry into force date is 1 January 2020.
Latvia is another EU Member State to introduce national rules on the use of botanical ingredients in food. Poland has no equivalent regulation. As a result, when assessing whether a botanical ingredient can be used in a food (including a food supplement), it is necessary to rely on a range of documents—both legal and scientific.
Key questions include:
How to verify whether a botanical ingredient may be used in a product?
What is the relationship between rules on ingredients and Novel Food legislation?
What impact do regulations adopted in other Member States have on products placed on the Polish market?
The use, labelling and advertising of botanical ingredients are frequent topics of advisory projects and practical workshops delivered by IGI FOOD LAW.
Enquire about an advisory project or training: igifoodlaw@igifoodlaw.com
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