No C 138/42 Official Journal of the European Communities 9. 6. 81 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Directive on the approximation of the laws of the 
Member States relating to flavourings for use in foodstuffs and to source materials for 
their production 
The text referred to the Committee has been published in Official Journal of the 
European Communities No C 144 of 13 June 1980, page 9. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
On 12 June 1980 the Council referred the abovementioned proposal to the Economic 
and Social Committee in accordance with Article 100 of the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 
185th plenary session held in Brussels on 25 and 26 February 1981. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community, and in particular 
Article 100 thereof, 
Having regard to the request made by the Council of 
the European Communities on 12 June 1980 for an 
opinion on the proposal for a Council Directive on 
the approximation of the laws of the Member States 
relating to flavourings for use in foodstuffs and to 
source materials for their production, 
Having regard to the decision taken by its Bureau on 
1 July 1980, instructing the Section for Industry, 
Commerce, Crafts and Services to draw up an 
opinion and a report on the matter, 
Having regard to the opinion issued by the Section 
for Industry, Commerce, Crafts and Services at its 
meeting on 4 February 1981, 
Having regard to the report submitted by the 
rapporteur, Mr Ramaekers, 
Having regard to the discussions at its 185th plenary 
session held on 25 and 26 February 1981 (meeting of 
26 February 1981), 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
by 75 votes to four, with five abstentions: 1. General comments 
1.1. The Committee welcomes the Commission's 
draft Directive, subject to the following comments: 
1.2. The Committee recognizes the need for rules to 
be introduced in order to: 
— reduce the number of barriers to trade and to 
avoid such barriers in the common market and to 
give all manufacturers equal conditions as 
regards competition; 
— take account, at the highest level, of public health 
protection requirements; 
— enable users and consumers to be provided with 
the information they require. 
1.3. Generally speaking, the Committee does not 
wish to call into question the principle of using lists 
of authorized substances, as affirmed in its work on 
the Directives on additives (,). 
1.4. The Committee nevertheless recognizes 
difficulties caused by the application of this principle 
in the case under consideration, particularly as a 
result of the complexity of the classification, 
specification and toxicological assessment of 
flavourings. 
(!) See, for example, the Committee's opinions on 
colouring matters (OJ No C 113, 7. 5. 1980), preservati­
ves and antioxidants (OJ No C 348, 31. 12. 1980). 
9. 6. 81 Official Journal of the 
1.5. The Committee therefore proposes that the lists 
of authorized substances or, to put it in another way, 
the specific implementing Directives in respect of 
Article 5 of the outline Directive, should be drawn up 
over a period of time, starting with the Directives 
covering those groups of substances or materials 
which would seem to be the most important from the 
point of view of public health. 
2. Specific comments 
Article 1 
2.1. The Committee considers that the clause 'or 
when not exclusively derived from natural flavouring 
materials or foodstuffs' in the definition of 'artificial 
flavouring preparation' should be replaced by 'or if it 
contains one or more artificial flavouring 
substances'. This wording is more in line with the 
labelling requirements set out in Article 10.3. 
Article 5 
2.2. In view of the difficulties in drawing up lists of 
authorized substances and in monitoring the 
observance of these lists, the Committee proposes 
that the Article be re-worded to read as follows: 
'The Council shall, under the procedure provided 
for in Article 100 of the Treaty, draw up, over a 
period of time, specific Directives setting out the 
provisions applicable to some groups of 
flavourings, starting with the groups which it 
regards as the most important from the public 
health point of view. 
The specific Directives shall include, in particular, 
lists of substances or materials authorized for use 
to the exclusion of all others. These lists shall be 
drawn up in respect of: 
(a) artificial flavouring substances; 
(b) nature-identical flavouring substances; 
(c) source materials for the production of 
flavouring preparations (artificial and 
natural); 
Done at Brussels, 26 February 1981. European Communities No C 138/43 
(d) source materials for the production of natural 
flavouring substances; 
(e) additives necessary for the production and 
storage of flavourings; 
(f) products used for dissolving and diluting 
flavourings; 
(g) processing aids (e.g. extraction solvents) 
necessary for the production of flavourings. 
The Council shall specify the conditions governing 
the use of the substances and materials referred to 
in indents (e), (f) and (g) above.' 
Article 10 
2.3. The Committee urges that, in order to provide 
consumers with the information they need, the words 
'reproduced' or 'artificial' should always be 
indicated in the case of flavourings intended for the 
final consumer. 
2.4. The Committee considers that it should be 
permissible to use the word 'natural' on the labelling 
of some natural flavouring preparations comprising 
just one substance (e.g. menthol). 
2.5. The Committee therefore proposes that Article 
10 (2) be amended to read as follows: 
'The word "natural", or any word having 
substantially the same meaning, may only be used 
for flavourings, the flavouring component of 
which contains exclusively: 
— natural flavouring preparations, 
— natural flavouring substances corresponding to 
the flavouring component of the natural 
flavouring material or the foodstuff from which 
they are isolated.' 
Article 14 
2.6. The time limits should determined in the light 
of the gradual implementation of Article 5 as 
proposed above. 
The Chairman 
of the 
Economic and Social Committee 
Tomas ROSEINGRAVE 
No C 138/44 Official Journal of the European Communities 9. 6. 81 
ANNEX 
to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee 
Rejected amendment 
The following amendment, tabled in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, was rejected during 
the debate: 
Page 43, point 2.2, second paragraph: 
This paragraph should be amended to read as follows: 
'The Council shall, under the procedure provided for in Article 100 of the Treaty, draw up, 
over a period of time, specific Directives setting out the provisions applicable to some groups 
of flavourings, starting with the groups which it regards as the most important from the public 
health point of view. A list of authorized substances under the heading "natural flavourings 
isolated from foodstuffs" should be drawn up which would include all flavourings of this 
type.' 
Reasons 
It remains doubtful whether the justified goals of consumers are furthered in the case of the 
majority of flavourings by drawing up lists of authorized substances, although the gradual 
approach proposed in the current opinion represents an interesting improvement over the 
provisions set out in the Commission document. 
At the present time about 4 000 different flavouring substances are already known to the food and 
flavouring industries. It may well be possible in theory to deal with such a large number of 
flavourings by means of lists of approved substances but this causes considerable problems as is 
rightly stated in the opinion. The most important point is that the use of lists of substances 
authorized to the exclusion of all others makes it practically impossible to carry out the inspections 
which are necessary in the interests of consumers. Checks carried out at the frontier or inland stand 
a very good chance of determining whether prohibited substances have been used in the 
manufacture of imported goods or goods of domestic manufacture. The inspection bodies are, 
however, faced with an insoluble task when they have to check for the presence of substances which 
are not listed anywhere but are merely defined as not figuring on lists of authorized substances. 
This means that the inspection bodies are virtually obliged to check for the presence of substances 
without knowing what the substances are. When checks are being carried out to determine the 
presence of potentially harmful substances, in order to protect consumers, these substances could 
easily be set out in a list of banned substances. Annex 2 to the draft Directive offers a very 
interesting idea in this respect. 
The draft Directive and the draft Committee opinion are based on the principle that as, under the 
laws governing foodstuffs, food additives have to be included in lists of authorized substances, the 
same must apply to flavourings. Flavouring substances which are isolated from foodstuffs are, 
however, themselves foods and not additives. To include such substances in lists of authorized 
substances would be in contravention of the current provisions of the food regulations. 
This would, however, be reduced to a technical problem if all the flavouring substances isolated 
from foodstuffs were to be included in a list of authorized substances under the heading of 
'flavouring substances isolated from foodstuffs'. The Commission representative informed the 
members of the Study Group that such a step was feasible. By introducing this provision a practical 
solution would be found for the great majority of flavouring substances which could be accepted 
even though technically it would mean extending the use of lists of authorized substances to these 
substances. 
In order to demonstrate the relatively small importance of flavourings in the human food intake I 
would draw attention to the following figures: 
The total per capita annual consumption of food has been estimated at 740 kilograms for the 
population of the Federal Republic of Germany. In view of the regulations governing foodstuffs in 
that country the figure of 740 kilograms for total food consumption corresponds to an annual per 
capita intake of flavouring substances of only about 8-5 grams. This figure can in turn be broken 
down as follows: 
— natural flavouring substances: 6-4 grams, 
— nature-identical flavouring substances: 1-8 grams, 
— artifical flavouring substances: 0-3 grams. 
Result of the voting 
For: 12, Against: 63, Abstentions: 4