On 11 April the EU Commission
announced a new legislative proposal for improving transparency in scientific
studies about food, by reforming the General Food Law (Regulation (EC) No
178/2002) The Proposal is based on a
European Citizens’ Initiative and supported by the findings of the fitness
check on general food law, as both pointed out issues relating to transparency
of the studies. What is surprising is that the press release points out that
the fitness check is in need of updating even though it was published in 2018. The
General Food Law fitness check has been a long time coming, as it had been
announced from 2013.
The Proposal suggests a targeted
revision of the General Food Law. It is worth remembering that the General Food
Law was introduced in response to the food crises in late 90s, such as the BSE
crisis, which had a big impact on consumers’ trust to food safety. But which
are they key changes included in the proposal?
All studies submitted to EFSA are
to be made public, proactively and automatically, thus increasing transparency
with the exclusion of confidential information. In practice, when an applicant submits
a dossier for a study they will submit a confidential and a non-confidential
version. The confidential version will be made public immediately and the
confidential version will be assessed by EFSA and additional data may be made
available to the public, if EFSA qualifies the as non-confidential.
A consultation procedure is to be
established to allow stakeholders as well as the general public to have their
say on submitted studies. What is important is that the consultation will
include not only studies for the authorisation of new substances but also
studies on the renewal of previously authorised substances. This ensures that
renewal processes will not avoid the scrutiny of the public as new scientific
evidence as to their effects may come to light after the initial authorisation.
Furtermore, it includes
measures on the governance of EFSA including the choice of experts for the scientific
panels of EFSA to be made from a pool of candidates put forward by the Member
States, thus involving them further in the process, as well as allowing EFSA to
commission studies on a case to case bases in exceptional circumstances, such
as when a substance is highly controversial.
This Proposal will not necessarily
mean a higher standard of protection for consumers. What it means is that
citizens will be able to be more involved in the law making process in this
area and the legislators and will be held accountable with greater ease. That
it will be possible to check the objectivity of the evidence used to inform
regulation. Food law legislation can be highly divisive and one that generates
great interest from civic society from environmental organisations to parent
associations for issues such as GMOs or food additives.
This signifies a new era in food
law where citizens are more involved than ever before; this can be seen also in
the origin of the proposal, a European Citizens’ Initiative, only one of four successful
ones making this truly bottom-up regulation. Even though that particular
initiative was focused on stopping glyphosate the Commission took on the comments on improving transparency to effect a
lasting structural change. The Commission appears keen to push the proposal
forward aiming for it to be adopted by mid-2019.
