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Bruxelles, le 30 mai 1997
Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Labelling - Ottawa, Canada, 14-17 May 1996
EURO COOP's comments ont the Labelling of allergenic ingredients
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Compound ingredients
EURO COOP supports the Codex proposal to reduce the cut-off point to 5%. Indeed, some of our members already have a 0% cut-off point and declare all ingredients.
Some EURO COOP members support the full list proposed by Codex of ingredients that should always be declared while others consider that an extensive list would raise practical problems and that there should only be an obligation to declare those ingredients which are known to cause grave reactions. In all events, however, the list must be precise as to the components covered.
KF, the Swedish consumer cooperative, would like to see wheat and rye added to the Codex list
We question, for the EU, the inclusion of sulphites in the list as the Additives Directive requires them to be declared.
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Class names
EURO COOP agrees that the allergenic ingredients listed should be declared where they are covered by a class name.
We do not envisage any problems with regard to the class names with the exception of "fish" because that contains shellfish.
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Carry-over
Most EURO COOP members consider that it is very difficult to declare ingredients when used as processing aids, as there is not enough accurate information available and this should only be required for a very restricted list of items.
KF, the Swedish consumer cooperative, believes that it is very important to declare all the items on the Codex list.
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European Food Intolerance Databanks
EURO COOP does not believe that databanks are useful or solve the problem. They are too expensive and time-consuming administratively for retailers who have a large number of own-label products. Several of our Coops have their own consumer helplines.
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