. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/EEC/375 
9 July 2010 
 (10-3763) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
1. Notifying Member:  EUROPEAN UNION
 
If applicable, name of local government involved:    
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission, Health & Consumers Directorate-General 
Directorate E - Safety of the Food Chain 
3. Products covered (provide tariff item numbe r(s) as specified in national schedules 
deposited with the WTO;  ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where 
applicable):  Foodstuffs 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected, to the extent relevant or practicable: 
[X] All trading partners   
[ ] Specific regions or countries:    
5. Title of the notified document:  "Draft Commission Directive amending Directive 
2009/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the approximation of the 
laws of the Member States on extraction solven ts used in the production of foodstuffs and 
food ingredients"  Language:  English  Number of pages:  5 
http://members.wto.org/crnattach ments/2010/sps/EEC/10_2711_00_e.pdf  
6. Description of content:  The EFSA evaluated the safety of dimethyl ether as an extraction 
solvent to remove fat from animal protei n raw materials and expressed its opinion of 
29 January 2009 (OJ L 141, 6 June 2009).  Th e EFSA concluded that there is no safety 
concern provided that the MRL of dimethyl ether is 9 μg/kg of extracted animal proteins. 
Specific limits should be set in foodstuffs fo r methanol and propan-2-ol resulting from their 
use for the preparation of flavourings from na tural flavouring materi als.  Those limits 
should be lower than the limit of 10 mg/ kg assessed as safe by the Scientific Committee for 
Food, in order to be considered as safe. 
7. Objective and rationale:  [X] food safety, [ ] animal health, [ ] plant protection, 
[ ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease, [ ] protect territory from other 
damage from pests.    
8. Is there a relevant international stan dard?  If so, identify the standard:  
[ ] Codex Alimentarius Commission (e.g.  title or serial number of Codex standard 
or related text)   
[ ] World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) (e.g. Terrestrial or Aquatic 
Animal Health Code, chapter number)    G/SPS/N/EEC/375 
Page 2  
 
  [ ] International Plant Protection Convention (e.g. ISPM number)    
[X] None Does this proposed regulation conform to the relevant international standard?   
 [ ] Yes   [ ] No 
 If no, describe, whenever possible, how and why it deviates from the 
international standard:    
9. Other relevant documents and language (s) in which these are available:  "Directive 
2009/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States on extraction solvents used in the production of foodstuffs and food ingredients": http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriSer v.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:141:0003:0011:EN:PDF    
10. Proposed date of adoption (dd/mm/yy) :  Mid-September 2010 
Proposed date of publication (dd/mm/yy) :  October 2010 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:  [ ] Six months from date of publication , and/or  
(dd/mm/yy) :  On the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the 
European Union. 
[ ] Trade facilitating measure   
12. Final date for comments:  [X] Sixty days  from the date of circulation of the 
notification and/or (dd/mm/yy) :  7 September 2010 
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [X] National Notification 
Authority, [X] National Enquiry Point.  Address, fax number and e-mail address (if 
available) of other body:   
European Commission  
DG Health and Consumers, Unit D3 - In ternational questions (multilateral)  
Rue Froissart 101 B 1049 Brussels Tel.:  +(32) 2 29 68185/59922 
Fax:  +(32) 2 2998090 
E-mail:  sps@ec.europa.eu 
13. Texts available from:  [X] National Notification Authority, [X] National Enquiry 
Point.  Address, fax number and e-mail address (if available) of other body:    
European Commission  
DG Health and Consumers, Unit D3 - In ternational questions (multilateral)  
Rue Froissart 101 
B 1049 Brussels 
Tel.:  +(32) 2 29 68185/59922 Fax:  +(32) 2 2998090 E-mail:  sps@ec.europa.eu