Statutory Instrument

S.I. No. 343 of 2001

European Communities (Purity Criteria on Food Additives other than Colours and Sweeteners ) (Amendment) Regulations, 2001

Dublin

Published by the Stationery Office

S.I. No. 343 of 2001

European Communities (Purity Criteria on Food Additives other than Colours and Sweeteners) (Amendment) Regulations, 2001

I, Micheál Martin, Minister for Health and Children, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 ( No 27 of 1972 ), and for the purpose of giving further effect to Commission Directive 96/77/EC¹ of 2 December 1996 laying down specific purity criteria on food additives other than colours and sweeteners, as amended by Commission Directive 98/86/EC² of 11 November 1998 and Commission Directive 2000/63/EC³ of 5 October 2000, hereby make the following Regulations :

1.      (1)     These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Purity Criteria on Food Additives other than Colours and Sweeteners) (Amendment) Regulations, 2001.

(2)     The European Communities (Purity Criteria on Food Additives other than Colours and Sweeteners) Regulations, 1998 and 2000 and these Regulations may be cited together as the European Communities (Purity Criteria on Food Additives other than Colours and Sweeteners) Regulations, 1998 to 2001.

2.      In these Regulations, “the Principal Regulations” means the European Communities (Purity Criteria on Food Additives other than Colours and Sweeteners) Regulations, 1998 ( S.I. No. 541 of 1998 ).

3.      The Principal Regulations are hereby amended by:

(1)     in Regulation 2(1),

by the substitution for the definition of “the Commission Directive” of the following: “‘the Commission Directive’ means Commission Directive 96/77/EC² of 2 December 1996, as amended by Commission Directive 98/86/EC⁴ of 11 November 1998 and Commission Directive 2000/63/EC⁵ of 5 October 2000”, and by the addition of the following footnotes thereto :

(2)     by the substitution for Regulation 3 of the following:

“3      Products put on the market or labelled before March 31^st, 2001 which do not comply with Commission Directive 2000/63/EC of 5 October 2000 may be marketed until stocks are exhausted and these Regulations shall not apply to such stocks.”

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation).

These Regulations amend the European Communities (Purity Criteria on Food Additives other than Colours and Sweeteners) Regulations, 1998 ( S.I. No. 541 of 1998 ) and may be cited as the European Communities (Purity Criteria on Food Additives other than Colours and Sweeteners) (Amendment) Regulations, 2001.

These Regulations implement Commission Directive 2000/63/EC which amends Commission Directive 96/77/EC laying down specific purity criteria on food additives other than colours and sweetners as set out in Council Directive 95/2/EC.

This S.I. replaces the purity criteria already laid down for E320 -- butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) - and establishes new purity criteria for some categories of additives listed in Council Directive 95/2/EC as an addition to those purity criteria already established in the Annex to Commission Directive 96/77/EC and Directive 98/86/EC.

¹ OJ. No. L339, 30.12.1996 p.1

² OJ No. L 334, 9.12.1998 p.1

³ OJ No. L277, 30.10.2000, p.1

² OJ No. L334, 9.12.1998 p.1

“4 OJ. No. L334, 9.12.1998, p.1

5 OJ. No. L277, 30.10.2000, p.1”