Ahead of experts’ meeting on mineral oil contamination: foodwatch calls for strict limits
- Mineral oil in foods
More than 20 mineral oil recalls this year alone
Ahead of an important meeting of the European Commission’s and Member States’ expert committee on food contaminants, foodwatch has renewed its call for strict limits on mineral oil contamination. At tomorrow's SCoPAFF-meeting (Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed), Member states must support binding rules to finally protect consumers from dangerous mineral oils. According to the European warning system RASFF, there have already been more than 20 food recalls due to mineral oil contamination this year alone, some of them at very high levels. After years of campaigning by organisations such as foodwatch, the EU is now planning to introduce mineral oil limits for the first time ever. The SCoPAFF-committee will discuss a draft EU regulation on the issue tomorrow. A decisive vote could take place in November.
"We are at a decisive moment! Contaminated food has been on supermarket shelves for years – yet the problem could be solved with binding EU rules. EU Member States must support the strictest possible mineral oil limits so that manufacturers are compelled to offer clean food and avoidable mineral oils contamination becomes history," demanded Natacha Cingotti from foodwatch International.
foodwatch has been campaigning for years for a zero-tolerance limit for mineral oil in food and has repeatedly published its own laboratory analyses to draw attention to the problem. An online petition launched by the international consumer organisation supported by WeMove and demanding EU regulatory action to put an end to this situation has already been signed by almost 240,000 people.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) considers the aromatic mineral oils (or MOAH) as potentially carcinogenic and mutagenic. In addition to harvesting and processing machinery, packaging can also be a source of mineral oil contamination. For example, packaging made from recycled paper often contains mineral oils from printing inks, which can migrate into food.