The Commission adopted a proposal for a Regulation on 28 July aiming to harmonise evaluation, authorisation and control procedures regarding enzymes used in foods. At the same time, it proposes to review Directives 89/107/EEC on food additives and 88/388/EEC on flavourings, introducing a general authorisation regime for marketing in the EU. The idea is to introduce a common European approval procedure for food additives, flavourings and enzymes.

In addition, the proposal creates a simplified common approval procedure for food additives, flavourings and enzymes, which would include safety evaluations from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

It aims to establish a positive list of allowed food additives and to make the European Food Safety Authority responsible for the risk assessment of new substances.

Additives and flavourings are already covered by EU legislation. The latest proposals bring the rules into line with the latest scientific and technological developments and will improve the clarity of the legislation.

With regard to food enzymes, the draft Regulation proposes replacing divergent national legislation, which can lead to problems for the internal market and an unclear situation for the EU consumer, with new harmonised EU rules.

The European Parliament is going to start examining the proposal during the first semester 2007. Moreover, the Commission is expected to publish a proposal to amend the current directive on nutrition labelling in spring 2007, which should make labelling of nutritional information mandatory. Consumers need information on nutrition that is understandable and enables them to make healthy and well-informed choices. A simplified labelling scheme would help consumers to understand nutritional labelling and to be able to judge rapidly the nutritional quality of the food they buy.

For more information, please see the Commission’s
(DG SANCO) Food Safety website.

As part of the German Presidency, the German Government intends to present a 'Cologne Paper' on the perspectives of a knowledge-based bio-economy within the next 25 years. It is expected to provide insights into the ongoing transformation of major industries through biotechnology and to inspire fresh ideas for future research funding programmes. A draft paper should be available by April 2007. The final version is to be presented on May 31, 2007 at the European BioPerspectives conference in Cologne. Experts from academia and industry are invited to contribute to the document by participating in one of the six topical workshop series' including:

• Framework conditions for the European bioindustries
• Food-Nutrition-Health
• Bio-Materials
• Energy from renewable sources
• Biomedicine
• New and emerging trends in science and technology.

EuropaBio is recommending European experts for the different fields. Contact: Dirk Carrez

McKinsey: By 2010 Industrial Biotechnology Will Account for 10 Percent of Sales within the Chemical Industry

McKinsey & Company predicts that by 2010 industrial biotechnology will account for 10 percent of sales within the chemical industry, accounting for $125 billion in value. Riese said that McKinsey & Company has 90 percent confidence in this projected growth, based on the current value of industrial biotechnology. Already as of 2005, industrial biotechnology -- counting products made from biobased feedstocks or through fermentation or enzymatic conversion -- accounts for 7 percent of sales and $77 billion in value within the chemical sector.

Read more: http://www.bio-economy.net/Docs/McKinsey.doc