The final seminar to discuss unified approaches to applying the new requirements of the technical regulation "Safety Requirements to Food Additives, Flavorings and Auxiliary Substances" (CU TR 029/2012), which came into force on February 27 this year, was held on November 26 in the Technical Regulation and Accreditation Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission.
The series of seminars, with the first and the second ones having taken place in April and July 2024, was organized at the proposal of the State Committee for Standardization of the Republic of Belarus due to the significant amount of changes adopted by the Decision of the EEC Council in August 2023 and affecting up to 70% of the technical regulation.
The three seminars were attended by over 500 representatives of authorized bodies, sectoral business associations and organizations of the Eurasian Economic Union Member States.
Following the discussion at the first two seminars, the answers to 27 questions prepared by the Department were agreed upon, including the possibility of using stevia extracts, food additives for types of food products not listed in the technical regulation, differences between functional and non-functional food additives, differences between complex food additives and flavorings, particulars of marking multi-component food products, specifics of conformity assessment of different technical regulation items, and the transition period.
About 30 more questions from among the most significant and topical ones were selected for the third seminar, including the specifics of application of food additives for bread and bakery products, meat and poultry products, beer and beer drinks, ketchups and sauces, use of packaging gases, naming conventions of food additives in the composition of food products, specifics of conformity assessment of food products with non-functional food additives, marking of food products with sweeteners and sugars, as well as with enzyme preparations.
During the final seminar, leading experts from the EAEU countries who participated in the working group to develop these requirements, in particular representatives of the Food Ingredients Producers Union, answered questions from entrepreneurs and government agencies who received the necessary recommendations on the application of the new requirements.
The answers most useful for the industry on implementing the technical regulation's new requirements will be published in the Relevant Matters category of the Technical Regulation section on the Commission's website.