Cheese rind coatings

Amendment to the Commodities Act on cheese rind coatings with regard to changes in permitted colourants.

This scheme aligns the authorised colourants in non-edible cheese rind coatings with those for edible cheese coatings as laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on food additives (OJ 2008 L 354) (hereinafter: Regulation (EC) 1333/2008). Article I of the draft of this scheme may contain technical requirements. The technical requirement concerns the modification of the authorised colourants for non-edible cheese rind coatings.

The Commodities Act on cheese rind coatings (hereinafter: Commodities Act) lays down further rules on the colouring agents that may be used for the manufacture of non-edible cheese rind coatings. Regulation (EC) 1333/2008 lays down colourants for edible cheese rinds other than those laid down in the Commodities Act on non-edible cheese rind coatings.
This amendment ensures that only the colourants allowed under Regulation (EC) 1333/2008 in edible cheese rinds may be used for non-edible cheese rind coatings. In this way, it is ensured that cheese does not contain any colourants that are not allowed for edible cheese rind, including through unintended migration of the colourant from the cheese rind coating into the cheese. This means that three colourants (sunset yellow FCF (E110), cochineal red A (E124) and titanium dioxide (E171)) can no longer be used for non-edible cheese rind coatings.
For the sake of completeness, it is noted that Article 13d of the Commodities Act contains a mutual recognition clause. The mutual recognition principle entails that an EU Member State shall not ban in its own territory the sale of goods that have been legally brought onto the market in another EU Member State on the grounds that the goods do not meet its own national regulations. It is important here that goods from another EU Member State offer at least an equivalent level of protection. The marketing of goods with an equivalent level of protection originating from other EU Member States falling within the scope of this regulation is therefore not prohibited on the basis of requirements laid down in this regulation.