Novel Foods: food safety MEPs back deal with Council

Draft plans to encourage food innovation via a new, simplified authorisation procedure for novel foods, already informally agreed with the Council of Ministers, was approved by the Environment Committee on Thursday by 36 votes to 29, with 3 abstentions

In talks, MEPs insisted that foods from cloned animals must be clearly included in the scope of the regulation, as must the precautionary principle, measures to keep nanomaterials under scrutiny and animal testing restrictions.

The novel foods regulation has had a long, and arduous, history in the European Parliament. Today's vote marks an important breakthrough for those who have made, and continue to make, the European food sector a world leader in high-quality and innovative food products", he added.
 

• Cloning, precautionary principle: as requested by MEPs in negotiations, the agreed text explicitly covers foods from cloned animals. The scope also includes food consisting of, isolated from or produced from cell or tissue cultures derived from animals, plants, micro-organisms, fungi or algae.
• Nanomaterials: The text includes a definition of nanomaterials, which may be updated, via a delegated act, to keep pace with scientific progress. The text also calls for a better assessment of nanotoxicokinetics and the toxicology of these materials. Micelles and liposomes are now also explicitly mentioned in the text.
• Animal testing: Tests on animals should be replaced, reduced or refined, says the text, and duplication of animal testing should be avoided where possible.

The text will be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole at a Strasbourg plenary session in September or October.