Draft Sweeteners in Food (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2004

The draft regulations, which will amend the Sweeteners in Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 to implement European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/115/EC and Commission Directive 2004/46/EC in Northern Ireland, are attached below. Your comments on the enclosed draft legislation are requested by 25 November 2004 at the latest please.

European Parliament and Council Directive 94/35/EC sets out a list of authorised sweeteners, the foodstuffs in which they may be used and their conditions of use. Commission Directive 2004/46/EC lays down specific purity criteria for two new sweeteners, sucralose (E955) and salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E962).

Directive 2003/115/EC

Directive 2003/115/EC of 22 December 2003, which was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (L24) on 29 January 2004, amends Directive 94/35/EC for the second time. The key changes are as follows:

• the authorisation of two new sweeteners, sucralose (E955) and salt of aspartame-acesulfame (E962) throughout the European Union (EU). The European Commission's Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) has found these sweeteners acceptable for use in food. Prior to their EU approval, sucralose and salt of aspartame-acesulfame were permitted to be marketed in the UK under a temporary national authorisation. These national authorisations are permitted under Article 5 of the Food Additives Framework Directive (89/107/EEC). When the proposed regulations come into force the authorisations for sucralose and salt of aspartame-acesulfame will be revoked. This will result in changes to the conditions of use of sucralose in some categories of foodstuffs.
• changes to the conditions of use for aspartame (E951). Aspartame can be used in additional categories.
• changes to the conditions of use of cyclamic acid and its sodium and calcium salts (E952; 'cyclamate'). Member States accepted that there was a need to reduce the maximum usable dose of cyclamate in soft drinks following the SCF's revised opinion on cyclamate (E952) published in March 2000. This opinion established an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for cyclamate of 0-7 mg/kg bw/day.

Directive 2004/46/EC

Directive 95/31/EC of 16 April 2004, which was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (L114) on 21 April 2004, amends Directive 95/31/EC for the fourth time. Directive 2004/46/EC lays down specific purity criteria for sucralose and salt of aspartame-acesulfame.

The proposed regulations

The Sweeteners in Food Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 have been amended six times (in 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003) to implement amendments to Directives 94/35/EC and 95/31/EC respectively. The enclosed draft Sweeteners in Food (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 will implement the provisions of these Directives in Northern Ireland.

Member States are required to implement the provisions of Directive 2003/115/EC into national legislation by 29 January 2005 and to prohibit products that do not comply with the Directive by 29 January 2006. The provisions of Directive 2004/46/EC are required to be implemented by 1 April 2005.

Devolved administrations

Colleagues in England, Scotland and Wales are drawing up their own Regulations to implement the new Directives and are carrying out similar consultation exercises.

Your comments

Please let Debbie Niblock have your comments or views on the draft regulations. Please feel free to pass this document to anyone with an interest, or send us their contact details and we will arrange for copies to be sent to them.

Comments on the consultation process itself

We are interested in what you thought of this consultation and would therefore welcome your general feedback on both the consultation package and overall consultation process. If you would like to assist us to improve the quality of future consultations, please feel free to share your thoughts with us by using the Consultation Feedback Questionnaire atttached below.

If any of the mailing information used to send you this letter has changed, please advise us using the feedback questionnaire.

If you would like to be included on future FSA consultations on other topics, please advise us of those subject areas that you might be specifically interested in by using the feedback questionnaire.

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the Cabinet Office's Code of Practice on Written Consultation.

The Code of Practice contains a list of criteria that all national public consultations must follow. This list can be found attached. For further details please contact Samantha Dunger, Food Standards Agency, Room 615C, Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6NH, Tel: 020 7276 8630, email: samantha.dunger@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk.

All the views/comments received by the Agency will be made available for public examination. If you would prefer your comments NOT to be made publicly available, please indicate this by fully completing and returning the data protection form together with your response.

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the HM Government Code of Practice on Consultation, which states that a consultation must follow better regulation best practice, including carrying out an Impact Assessment (Regulatory Impact Assessment in Scotland). The assessment is included in the consultation documents.

We are interested in what you thought of this consultation and would therefore welcome your general feedback on both the consultation package and overall consultation process. If you would like to assist us to improve the quality of future consultations, please feel free to share your thoughts with us by using the consultation feedback questionnaire.

Consultation feedback questionnaire (Word)

Consultation feedback questionnaire (pdf)

In accordance with the FSA principle of openness our Information Centre at Aviation House will hold a copy of the completed consultation. Responses will be open to public access upon request. The FSA will also publish a summary of responses, which may include personal data, such as your full name and contact address details. If you do not want this information to be released, please complete and return the Publication of Personal Data Form. Return of this form does not mean that we will treat your response to the consultation as confidential, just your personal data.

Data protection form (Word)

Data protection form (pdf)

Within three months of a consultation ending we aim to publish a summary of responses received and provide a link to it from this page.

If, after three months, the summary is still not showing, please contact the person who was responsible for the original consultation. Alternatively, you can contact the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator by email: consultationcoordinator@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk