The second seminar to discuss unified approaches to applying new norms of technical regulation "Safety Requirements for Food Additives, Flavors and Auxiliary Substances" (TR CU 029/2012), which came into force on February 27 this year, was held in the Eurasian Economic Commission on July 25 under the chairmanship of Tatiana Nikolaeva, Deputy Director of the EEC Technical Regulation and Accreditation Department​.

Since the changes to the technical regulation affected up to 70% of its provisions, the Department's management planned to organize a series of explanatory seminars, the first of which was held in April 2024. Counting the latest event, more than 200 representatives of authorized authorities, sectoral business associations and organizations of the Eurasian Economic Union countries have already received the necessary recommendations on the application of the new requirements.

It bears reminding that following the discussion at the first seminar, the answers to a number of questions prepared by the Department were agreed upon, including the reasons for exclusion of 19 food additives from the technical regulation, the application scope for preservatives, coloring agents, sweeteners and thickeners in meat, dairy, confectionery and other food industries, approaches to assessing safety of complex food additives, rules for transferring food additives through the components of foodstuffs, etc.

During the seminar, leading experts of the Eurasian Economic Union countries involved in the development of these requirements as part of the working group, including representatives of the Federal State Budgetary Science Institution "Nutrition and Biotechnology Federal Research Center" and the Food Ingredients Producers Union, answered questions from business representatives and government agencies.

In particular, they discussed the possibility of using stevia extracts and food additives for types of food products not indicated in the technical regulation, the differences between functional and non-functional food additives, complex food additives and flavors, specifics of labeling food products made with the use of complex food additives, sweeteners, enzyme preparations, specifics of conformity assessment of various subjects of the technical regulation, the transition period and much more.

The answers most useful for the industry on implementing the technical regulation's new requirements will be published in the Topical Issues tab of the Technical Regulation section on the Commission's website.