Processing aids used in food manufacturing processes and their conditions of use

DRAFT ROYAL DECREE ON PROCESSING AIDS USED IN FOOD PROCESSING AND PRODUCTION PROCESSES

The draft Royal Decree regulates processing aids used to process and produce different types of food and their conditions of use.

It applies without prejudice to other rules that may be in force regarding processing aids, such as extraction solvents that can be used in the manufacture of foodstuffs and their ingredients and those used in edible caseins and caseinates and in the production of edible vegetable oils, which are regulated by other national rules, or food enzymes, which are regulated by EU legislation.
It includes the labelling requirements that must be met by processing aids placed on the market in Spain, without prejudice to the indications provided for in other legislation that may be applicable, and the conditions to be met by companies engaged in manufacturing, packaging or distributing processing aids, such as the obligation to be registered in the General Health Register of Food and Food Companies [Registro General Sanitario de Empresas Alimentarias y Alimentos], in the case of Spanish companies, and to be subject to the requirements described in the regulations of the food hygiene package developed by the European Union that may be applicable to them.
All those national rules that have become obsolete and which have been incorporated into this draft are repealed.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are empowered to update and amend Annexes I and II of this Royal Decree in order to adapt it to scientific and technical knowledge, and to the European Union rules adopted, where appropriate, on the subject.
Finally, it is established that, for the approval and inclusion in Annex I of new processing aids, a risk assessment by the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition is required, which establishes the safety of the intended use, as well as a prior favourable report from the Directorate-General for the Food Industry at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.