Amendment to the Sweeteners in Food Regulations 1995 (as amended)

Background

1. The Agency has received an application from The Holland Sweetener Company seeking approval to market a new sweetener, salt of aspartame - acesulfame, in the UK.

Article 5 of the Food Additives Framework Directive permits Member States to provisionally authorise the marketing and use of an additive within its territory which is not included in the relevant list (i.e. are not included in the list of permitted additives in the relevant directive).

Such authorisation is permitted for a maximum of two years, during which time the applicant is required to seek EU-wide approval. In July, the European Commission published its proposal for amendment of the Sweeteners Directive (94/35/EC). This includes the addition of salt of aspartame - acesulfame to the list of approved sweeteners.

2. The Agency carried out a public consultation on The Holland Sweetener Company's application and publsihed a summary of responses.

Three responses were received; none of which raised any safety concerns that had not previously been raised for the individual components.

3. You will note this draft Statutory Instrument does not include a table showing maximum usable doses and foodstuff categories for this sweetener. This is because the limits for this salt are based on the equivalent amounts of the two separate constituents, aspartame and acesulfame K when used as individual components. Accordingly, the salt can only be used in the foodstuff categories approved for both constituent components.

We would be grateful for your comments on this particular issue as well as any others relating to the drafting of this regulation. We propose to publish guidance to this effect when this regulation comes into force.

4. In considering this draft SI you should note that it applies to England only. Parallel regulations will be made in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Your comments

5. We would be grateful for your comments and views no later than 4 April 2003.

6. Enquiries relating to the contents of this consultation should be directed via the contact details given on this page .

Further information

7. Please feel free to pass this document to any parties with an interest in the subject matter herein, or send us their full contact details and we will arrange for a copy to be sent to them direct.

8. A summary of the responses received will be published in due course.

This consultation has been prepared in accordance with the Better Regulation Executive's 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 Judith Taylor, the FSA Consultation Co-ordinator, on 020 7276 8633.
Email: judith.taylor@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk